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The other assist went to 21-year-old defenseman Michael Del Zotto, who along with Kreider was only 3 when these teams last met in the conference finals in `94.
Girardi also earned a secondary assist on Kreider's power-play goal with 8 minutes remaining that made it 2-0. New York's slumping power play connected after Girardi was drilled hard from behind into the boards by Devils forward Steve Bernier.
Anisimov, who also assisted on Kreider's goal, scored into an empty net to make it 3-0 with 1:27 left.
Brodeur heard sing-song chants of "Mar-ty, Mar-ty" before the game started. Those got much louder after Girardi's goal, and even more taunting after Kreider scored as the blue-shirt wearing, towel-waving fans' excitement grew. Brodeur finished with 25 saves.
Lundqvist was solid throughout in posting his second shutout of these playoffs.
"Hank is huge for us back there," Girardi said. "We were struggling a little bit in our defensive zone and he was there to bail us out. That's what happened. He made some big saves, and in the third period we came out hard and got a couple of goals for him."
To no one's surprise, the teams were still tied heading into the final frame, but not because of a lack of chances.
Lundqvist was sharp in turning aside pucks that sneaked through the wall of teammates. He was at his best while the Rangers were on a power play late in the second period.
Parise had the puck to the left of the net and snapped off a forehand that Lundqvist blocked. Parise got another whack at the rebound, and was again denied. Given one more chance with a backhander, Parise failed to break the deadlock with a short-handed goal.
"I tried to go 5-hole on the first one and it just kept popping back to me," Parise said. "I tried to go up, and he made the save. It came back, and I tried to go high, and he made another save. It was unfortunate. It was a few of those opportunities we had. We just didn't capitalize."
It wasn't the first bit of frustration in the series opener for Parise. He was caught from behind by hard-charging defenseman Ryan McDonagh to thwart a first-period breakaway before Parise could get a shot on Lundqvist.
McDonagh made the most of his 22-year-old legs, and showed no signs of fatigue from 14 previous playoff games this season, when he also chased down Ilya Kovalchuk in the first period. Lundqvist made a stop at the end of the charge.
The Devils also peppered Lundqvist in the opening minutes of the second period. Lundqvist fought to see between a maze of players and even gave a shove to the back of teammate Anton Stralman, trying to move the defenseman out of his line of sight.
NOTES: Brodeur made his 183rd consecutive playoff start for the Devils. He is the only player from the 1994 series still in the NHL. ... Kreider, who made his debut on April 16 at Ottawa after winning the NCAA championship with Boston College, has three goals in the playoffs.
[Associated Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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