Devils aim to eliminate Rangers in Game 6

After posting consecutive victories in Games 4 and 5, the sixth-seeded Devils
are ahead 3-2 in this series and are one win away from making their first trip
to the Cup Finals since 2003, when the franchise won the last of its three
championships.

Meanwhile, the Rangers, who led this series 2-1 at one point, need a road
victory this evening to stave off elimination. New York will have to win two
straight against New Jersey to make its first trip to the Stanley Cup Finals
since winning it all in the spring of 1994.

New York was in this same situation earlier in the postseason when it trailed
Ottawa 3-2 in the conference quarterfinals. The Rangers won Games 6 and 7 to
take that series and then went on to eliminate Washington in seven games
during the East semis. If the Blueshirts win tonight, then they’ll host a
decisive Game 7 on Sunday at Madison Square Garden.

The winner of this series will host the Los Angeles Kings in Game 1 of the
Stanley Cup Finals on Wednesday. The Kings, who are seeded eighth in the West,
won the franchise’s first conference title since 1993 by eliminating Phoenix
in five games.

The Devils are 5-2 on home ice during this postseason and are 1-1 as the host
in this series. New York is 4-4 as the visiting team in this year’s playoffs.

New Jersey blew a three-goal lead in Wednesday’s Game 5 in New York, but the
Devils were still able to pull out a 5-3 triumph to take the 3-2 edge in the
best-of-seven series. Ryan Carter scored a tie-breaking goal with 4:24
remaining in the third period and Zach Parise added an empty-netter in the
final minute to seal the win for New Jersey.

“It was an adventure. Kind of a tale of two or three games out there,” said
New Jersey head coach Peter DeBoer.

Ilya Kovalchuk and Mark Fayne both had two assists for the Devils, while
Martin Brodeur earned the win with 25 saves.

Stephen Gionta, Patrik Elias and Travis Zajac all scored in the first period
for New Jersey, giving the Devils a 3-0 lead over New York and its goaltender
Henrik Lundqvist. New York cut the deficit to 3-1 before the end of the first
on a goal by Brandon Prust and the Rangers eventually tied the contest at 3-3
on a Marian Gaborik tally just 17 seconds into the third period.

Ryan Callahan also scored for the Rangers, while Lundqvist stopped only 12
shots, his lowest save total of the 2012 postseason.

“We had a tough start,” said Rangers head coach John Tortorella. “Tough luck
for them a little bit on a couple of them. But I thought we probably played
our best game of the series tonight.”

New York forward Brandon Dubinsky (lower-body injury) played for the first
time since Game 7 of the conference quarterfinals. He recorded an assist over
15 minutes, 38 seconds of ice time.

Rangers forward Mats Zuccarello could see his first action of this postseason
tonight. Zuccarello has been sidelined since late March with a broken wrist.

As Atlantic Division combatants, the Devils and Rangers met six times during
the regular season and each team won three of those tilts.

The Blueshirts have dominated the postseason history against the Devils,
winning four of the five all-time playoff series between the clubs. New
Jersey’s only triumph came in the form of a sweep in the 2006 conference
quarterfinals, but the Rangers avenged that loss by eliminating the Devils in
five games in the opening round of the 2008 postseason.