STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS : Casey Gets Some Help in Leading the Bruins

Bryan Smolinski and David Shaw scored early and Jon Casey and the goal posts behind him made the lead stand up as the Boston Bruins defeated the New Jersey Devils, 2-1, on Sunday at East Rutherford, N.J., in Game 1 of an Eastern Conference semifinal playoff series.

Casey, who made 34 saves, stopped Claude Lemieux on a short-handed breakaway early in the period, and then the goalposts came into play. Randy McKay hit the right post on a breakaway with 15:15 to play. Five minutes later, Bruce Driver hit the left post with a shot from the blue line and Bernie Nicholls, who scored the Devils’ goal, was stopped by what appeared to be a combination of Casey’s glove and the crossbar on the rebound.

Casey also stopped a knuckler from Driver with four minutes to play.

“Jon Casey won us the game,” Bruin captain Ray Bourque said. “He played an outstanding game. He made the key saves down the stretch. We didn’t open it up and they poured it on us at times. We had to have Casey today because we didn’t play that great a game. It was sluggish at times.”

New York Rangers 6, Washington 3--The Rangers broke open a close game at New York on Brian Noonan’s second goal of the night, taking a 1-0 lead in an Eastern Conference semifinal series.

The Rangers, coming off a four-game sweep of the New York Islanders and a full week’s rest, put the game out of reach with three consecutive goals starting with Brian Leetch’s tiebreaker at 12:47 of the second period.

Noonan, obtained by the Rangers in a late-season trade with the Chicago Blackhawks, then scored at 15:45 to give New York a 4-2 lead.

The Rangers have outscored the opposition in the playoffs, 28-6.