Brodeur, Messier Earn a Draw
As in so many previous games between the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers, Martin Brodeur and Mark Messier were in the thick of the action with the outcome in the balance.
Messier found Matthew Barnaby with a pass in the closing moments of regulation, setting up the tying goal for the Rangers in a 3-3 draw with the Devils on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden.
Brodeur made 30 saves in his 50th straight regular-season start against the Rangers, but he couldn’t deny Barnaby from getting the tying goal with 1:49 left in the third period.
The Devils were without captain Scott Stevens for the fourth straight game, and the blown lead dropped the Stanley Cup champions to 3-5-3-1 in their last 12.
“We need other guys to step up,” Brodeur said. “We’re trying to stay real positive. We’re not going to get real down because we lost the lead.”
The Devils seemed to be on their way to another win over the Rangers after Sergei Brylin scored to snap a third-period tie. But Barnaby salvaged a rare point for New York against New Jersey.
“He almost froze Marty behind the net,” Barnaby said of Messier. “You know he’s going to make a great pass. He’s done it for 25 years.”
Brodeur has started every regular-season game against the Rangers since Dec. 26, 1993.
Before Game 6 of the 1994 Eastern Conference finals against New Jersey, Messier guaranteed the Rangers would even the series -- and he made sure of it by scoring three goals, two against Brodeur.
Not much has gone right for the Rangers against their area rivals since New York won the Stanley Cup 10 years ago. New York is 1-21-13-1 versus New Jersey since Feb. 17, 1997.
Stevens had been fighting flu but has still felt run-down since recovering from the illness. New Jersey General Manager Lou Lamoriello said Stevens will be out another seven to 10 days because the defenseman might be feeling the effects of an unknown hit from earlier in the season.
Colorado 4, Dallas 1 -- Peter Forsberg scored twice, and David Aebischer stopped 29 shots to lead the host Avalanche to its fourth straight win.
Brad Larsen scored his first goal in nearly two years, and Dan Hinote added his fourth of the season for Colorado, 9-1-2-1 in its last 13 games.
San Jose 3, Vancouver 1 -- Alex Korolyuk had a goal and an assist, Evgeni Nabokov made 34 saves and the Sharks beat the visiting Canucks in a meeting of division leaders. Alyn McCauley and Jonathan Cheechoo also scored for San Jose.
Boston 1, Buffalo 0 -- Felix Potvin made 27 saves for his 31st career shutout, and Sergei Samsonov scored to lift the visiting Bruins over the Sabres.
Potvin, 3-0-1 in his last four starts, helped Boston extend its winning streak to five games and its unbeaten streak to seven (6-0-1-0). The Bruins got their first shutout in Buffalo since April 4, 1993.
Tampa Bay 5, Carolina 4 -- Martin St. Louis scored three of the host Lightning’s five goals in the first period and Dave Andreychuk got his 1,300th point for Tampa Bay.
Kevin Weekes of the Hurricanes allowed goals on the first two shots he faced before being replaced by former King Jamie Storr.
St. Louis 5, Columbus 3 -- Eric Boguniecki scored twice to lead the host Blues to their fourth win in the last 14 games. Mark Rycroft added a goal and an assist for St. Louis.
New York Islanders 4, Ottawa 4 -- Todd White, Martin Havlat and Zdeno Chara scored in the third period to help the Senators overcome a four-goal deficit and tie the visiting Islanders. Patrick Lalime made 34 saves for Ottawa, which earned a point for the 14th time in 15 games (10-1-4).
Nashville 4, Phoenix 3 -- Scott Hartnell scored a power-play goal with 47 seconds left for the host Predators. Andrew Hutchinson, Marek Zidlicky and Martin Erat also scored for Nashville, which got 21 saves from Tomas Vokoun.
