Associated Press
NEW YORK ó 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.”
Bruins 2, Canadiens 1
BOSTON ó Marc Savard came off the bench on a delayed penalty to score with 9:25 gone in overtime and the Boston Bruins beat the Montreal Canadiens for the first time this season, winning 2-1 in Game 3 of their first-round series.
Tim Thomas made 27 saves for Boston, stopping several shots at close range in overtime.
Montreal continued its dominance in the overtime, testing Thomas continually before the Bruins caught a break when a penalty was signaled in Montreal’s zone. Peter Schaefer controlled the puck and got it to Dennis Wideman.
Savard came in off the bench as the extra skater, and Wideman found him in the middle for the open backhander.
The Bruins haven’t won a playoff series in three previous appearances since 1999; two of those three times they lost to Montreal.