STANLEY CUP PLAYOFFS : Matteau Is Ranger Star This Time

A first-game goat, Stephane Matteau got to play the other role in Game 3 and found being a hero much more to his liking.

Matteau scored in front of the net on a back-hander 6:13 into the second overtime Thursday night to give the New York Rangers a 3-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils and a 2-1 lead in the Eastern Conference final.

The victory was the Rangers’ second in a row and it restored the home-ice advantage New York blew in losing Game 1 at home Sunday, in part because of a give-away by Matteau that led to a goal.

“This is a different feeling,” Matteau said. “In the first game people remember the pass I put on Bernie Nicholls’ stick, a perfect pass that led to a goal. It turned things around and I felt pretty cheap and bad after that. Obviously this is a payback for me.”

The payback was made possible when Mike Richter saved the game for New York by stopping Tommy Albelin on a two-on-one breakaway 3:40 into the second overtime.

Less than three minutes later at the end of a long shift, Matteau struck after some hard work by Alexei Kovalev and Glenn Anderson.

Anderson sent the puck from behind the net to Kovalev and he tried to chip it over Devil goalie Martin Brodeur. The shot went over the net and hit New Jersey defenseman Scott Stevens and bounced back in front. Matteau then got the puck and scored his fourth goal of the playoffs.

“The puck came around the crease a few times,” Matteau said. “It came out on my stick, I just saw the opportunity and put it in. I saw it at the last second. I was lucky enough it went on my stick and it went in.”

The shot was the 50th of the game for the Rangers.

“The way the goalies were playing we could have been here all night,” Anderson said.

Game 4 will be Saturday night at the Meadowlands Arena.

The loss was extremely frustrating for the Devils, who saw a great opportunity to win vanish when Richter stopped Albelin.

Both teams had chances to either score a go-ahead goal in the third period or win in the first overtime.

The best chance in the first overtime belonged to Nicholls. He got the rebound of a bad-angle shot from the right corner by Tom Chorske right in front and fired it back in Richter’s pads with 7:52 left.

“I was in close and had to shoot it right away,” said Nicholls. “It was a good save.”

Anderson had had an equally good opportunity a few minutes earlier, just after stepping out of the penalty box. Breaking in from the right side, he took a cross-ice pass from Esa Tikkanen and missed a virtually open net.