The New Jersey Devils picked up right where they left off between game four and game five. They came out of the gate hot for the second straight game, taking their game to the New York Rangers from the opening puck drop.
The crowd in New Jersey was ready to rock and "raise hell" for the start of game five. It was the loudest crowd that I had heard thus far in this series.
The Devils understood the importance of this game, especially with the trend of NHL teams struggling on home ice. Prior to this game, the away teams had been on a 11-game winning streak.
The Devils wasted absolutely no time getting on the board, feeding off the energy of the fans. Ondrej Palat found a loose puck off of an offensive zone face-off and was able to beat Igor Shesterkin off of a funny bounce just 49 seconds into the contest.
In the postgame, Lindy Ruff told me how important this was for his team "I really think getting that 1st goal was a big deal. That kind of set the tone. Getting that first goal meant they’re gonna have to score two. We’ve been defending well, so the energy in the building, your fans, I think that elevates the players play.”
After what felt like a very flukey start, the Rangers started to settle into their game.
New York's top six forwards, who coach Gallant challenged prior to the game, sustained some offensive zone pressure that lead to a scoring chance from Artemi Panarin, but Akira Schmid came up big with the glove. Despite the save by Schmid, it was positive to see Panarin get a Grade-A scoring chance early on in the game. That being said, it felt like he couldn't buy a goal.
The Ranger would get a power play opportunity a little more than halfway through the opening frame. Zibanejad was back in his normal position on the left circle and got a couple of good looks. They failed to convert for the 12th attempt in a row in this series.
The first period ended with the Rangers trailing 1-0. It would have been a worse deficit if it weren't for Shesterkin, who came up huge three or four times in the period.
Aside from the opening four to five minutes of the first period, I thought the Rangers were actually the better team. I, along with the many others watching, had no idea what we were in store for.
New Jersey would jump out to a very similar start in the second frame.
Patrick Kane was sent to the box for tripping which led to a Erik Haula power-play goal for the Devils, giving them a 2-0 lead in the game.
At this point, I still didn't think the Rangers were playing all that bad. To that point, the Devils were playing all that well.
Things would get a whole lot worse for the Rangers before they got better. Barclay Goodrow challenged the 6'6 defenseman for New Jersey, Kevin Bahl to get the group fired up.
New York would go to the power play yet again, but after Panarin bobbled a puck high in the zone, Haula would streak in on a 2-on-1 with Dawson Mercer. Haula chucked a gorgeous saucer pass over to Mercer who absolutely ripped it by Shesterkin giving the Devils a commanding 3-0 lead.
That shorthanded marker completely sucked the life out of the Rangers. This goal might end up being the defining moment of the series.
New Jersey carried this lead into the second intermission. The vibes were not very high for the Rangers and the fan base after the first 40 minutes.
Gerard Gallant appeared to shuffle the lines in the second intermission. Kaapo Kakko started the third period on a line with Zibanejad and Kreider. Patrick Kane was moved to the third line with Filip Chytil and Alexis Lafreniere.
These changes didn't seem to matter at all in the final frame. The Rangers looked lifeless in the third period, aside from one player, Igor Shesterkin. New York had one shot on goal in the first 14:10 of the final 20 minutes.
Gallant completely ripped into his team after game four, but despite the result, he didn't seem that upset with his teams effort "I thought we played a lot harder than we did the other night, but we couldn't find a way to get a goal. We had some traffic and I thought the goalie played really well for them tonight."
Gallant pulled Shesterkin with a little more than five minutes remaining in the game, but the Devils wasted no time with the net empty. Haula scored his second of the game to put the dagger in the Rangers.
By the end of the game, there was a ton of empathy for Igor Shesterkin. He battled all night and did all that he could to keep the game close. The Devils could have easily ran the Rangers out of the building.
The visitors locker room was very somber in the postgame. Players appeared to be in complete shock in what had just happened. You could see the look on Chris Kreider's face, a look that screamed "how the hell did it get to this point?".
After the game, Kreider told the media “We’ve had a terrific fan base all year. We let them down, we let ourselves down at home. It’s up to us to show up and play the way that we want to play from puck drop. It’s time to step up and do those things. It’s time to win a hockey game.”
The New York Rangers could have won game three, they didn't deserve to win game four, and they got absolutely dominated in game five.
With all of that being said, the beautiful thing about playoff hockey is that a series can change in an instant. We saw it already in this series. Not many people thought we'd even see a game five.
The Rangers have to worry about winning one hockey game on home ice, then anything can happen in a game seven.
The New Jersey Devils have a chance to close this series out, but winning the fourth game of a series is the most difficult task in the playoffs.
I asked Lindy Ruff how his team is going to react after a big win and not get too excited, to which he said "We've been a team that, pretty well the whole year didn't get too down after the two losses. You can't get too high after the win. Celebrate the win. Spend this hour or so after the game enjoying it. Great moment here at home, but you have to be ready to put it behind you and come to work tomorrow."
I thought Dan Rosen said it best. The last two games, the Devils have played like the team we saw all year, which pegs the question, do the Rangers have any response for them?
Anyone that has watched this Ranger team knows that they never make it any easier on themselves.
Saturday night, the Rangers have a chance to force a game seven. It might not be the way they drew it up, but this team has been in situations like this before and they have thrived with their backs up against the wall.
This series is not over just yet.