Madden Nets OT Winner for Devils

[April 14, 2008]  NEW YORK (AP) -- John Madden scored 6:01 into overtime to get the New Jersey Devils back into their first-round series against the New York Rangers with a 4-3 victory Sunday night.

New Jersey beat the Rangers for just the second time in 11 games this season, and will look to tie the series in Game 4 on Wednesday night. The series will then shift back to New Jersey on Friday.

Madden took a faceoff to the right of Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, and the puck slid into the corner. Madden got to the loose puck and centered it. It clipped the right skate of rookie Rangers defenseman Marc Staal and caromed in.

"I'm not going to lie. It was a lot of luck," Madden said. "I thought Sergei (Brylin) might be there, but their guy was standing there. It hit him in the foot and went in. It was real lucky, but we need to get those breaks to get back into the series."

The Devils dominated the extra period, outshooting New York 5-1, and snapped a franchise-worst, five-game playoff losing streak.

"In the overtime, we weren't thinking. We were just going," forward Zach Parise said. "We wanted to get this win. We had a lot of great chances."

New Jersey never had the lead in dropping the first two games of the series at home, but held it three times in beating the Rangers for only the second time in 11 games this season.

Brylin made it 1-0 in the first, and Patrik Elias and Parise scored power-play goals 2:23 apart in the second.

Rangers rookie Brandon Dubinsky scored his first two career playoff goals, getting New York even at 1-1 and 3-3. Sean Avery scored for the third straight game and continued to be a pest to goalie Martin Brodeur, and Jaromir Jagr had three assists.

It just wasn't enough this time. 

"Those first two games, the lucky breaks went our way. Today it went their way in overtime," Jagr said. "Nobody said it was going to be easy. It's going to be hard. We have to take the positive. We're still ahead 2-1.

"Next game, we have to win it. That's the bottom line."

Brodeur shook off a blow to the head late in regulation, finishing with 27 saves and earning his 95th playoff victory. He has started 156 consecutive postseason games for the Devils.

Lundqvist, who hadn't allowed more than two goals in the previous 10 games against New Jersey this season, stopped 29 shots.

[Associated Press; By IRA PODELL]

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