Rangers' season ends after crushing Game 7 loss to dominant Devils
Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin reacts while skating back to his net during a break in play against the Devils during the second period of Game 7 of an NHL Stanley Cup first-round playoff series Monday in Newark, N.J. Credit: AP/Adam Hunger
NEWARK — A season that began with sky-high expectations ended for the Rangers in Game 7 of a first-round playoff series on Monday night at Prudential Center when the young Devils proved to be just too fast and too good.
Second-period goals by Michael McLeod and Tomas Tatar paired with another standout performance by rookie goaltender Akira Schmid proved to be enough to deal the Rangers a 4-0 loss that sent them home for the summer.
“They were better than us,’’ Rangers center Mika Zibanejad said.
The Devils, who finished second in the Metropolitan Division, five points ahead of the third-place Rangers, will face the Metropolitan Division champion Carolina Hurricanes in an Eastern Conference semifinal.
The Rangers are left to ponder how, after making it to the Eastern Conference final a year ago and beefing up their roster at the trade deadline by acquiring Vladimir Tarasenko and future Hall of Famer Patrick Kane, they could fail to get out of the first round.
“Well, I thought we played a real good team,’’ coach Gerard Gallant said. “Like I said before the series, and I was 100% honest, it was 50-50. We had a good team. I liked our team. But the team we played was a very fast team and they took it to us at times during the series with their speed.’’
For the second time in the series, the Rangers were unable to solve Schmid. The 22-year-old rookie was called upon by Devils coach Lindy Ruff to start Game 3 after the Rangers won the first two games of the series by identical 5-1 scores with Vitek Vanecek in goal. Schmid made 31 saves Monday in what probably was his best game of the series to earn his second shutout. He also won Game 5, 4-0.
“The four games we lost, we had two goals,’’ Gallant said. “I mean, you’re not going to win if you get two goals in the four games that you lost.’’
The Rangers outscored the Devils 15-4 in their three wins but were outscored 13-2 in their four losses.
Igor Shesterkin kept the Rangers in it as long as he could, making 20 saves.
“I feel bad for Igor,’’ defenseman Adam Fox said. “He battled all series for us. It feels bad to not be able to get some goal support for him . . . The way he battled, you just kind of feel like we let him down.’’
The game had a familiar feel at the start to Game 6 in that the Devils dominated possession in the first half of the first period before they started taking penalties, giving the Rangers power plays and a chance to get back in the game.
But unlike Saturday, the Rangers couldn’t capitalize on the power plays they got. Three in the first period produced nothing, and the Devils took control in the second period.
They took the lead on a shorthanded goal that was the result of some tenacious forechecking by former Tampa Bay forward Ondrej Palat, who hounded Fox and took the puck away from him in the Rangers’ zone.
“Obviously, a mistake by me there,’’ Fox said.
Chris Kreider momentarily recovered the puck, but Palat stole it back from him, then got by Fox and sent a pass to an uncovered McLeod in the low slot, one-on-one against Shesterkin. The goalie dived to try to knock the puck away, but McLeod avoided him and was able to tuck it around him and into the net at 9:53.
“That first goal was a tough one to give up, obviously,’’ Gallant said. “And then after that, I thought the rest of the second period we gave up too much. We gave up two-on-ones, we kept giving up odd-man rushes and then they got that second goal. So that was tough.’’
The Devils got the second goal after a brilliant performance by defenseman John Marino. He took a pass in the neutral zone, drove into the Rangers’ zone on the right side, cut to the middle and fired a shot that went wide. He followed his shot, retrieved the puck in the corner and passed it to the slot for Tatar, who banged it in at 15:39 for his first goal and first point of the playoffs.
Erik Haula finished a three-on-one at 14:27 of the third period, burying a pass from Jack Hughes to make it 3-0. Jesper Bratt added an empty-netter with 3:19 remaining.
Gallant’s future will be a topic of discussion now. Will he return as coach next season, or will general manager Chris Drury want a new voice behind the bench?
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
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