A couple of days ago, the New Jersey Devils were in serious trouble. They weren’t scoring or getting any breaks, and their chances of making the playoffs were fading.
A little more aggressiveness, a couple of breaks and some cooperation by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the form of a two-game losing streak has changed all that.
Dave Andreychuk scored a goal and set up two others in the first period and the Devils improved their playoff chances with a 4-2 victory over the New York Rangers on Sunday in East Rutherford, N.J.
Bill Guerin, John MacLean and Jason Smith also scored as the Devils (84 points) moved two points ahead of Tampa Bay in the fight for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. New Jersey has three games left; Tampa Bay has four remaining, one Monday against the New York Islanders.
“We were talking about that before the game, that this game could be the one that puts us in the playoffs,” Devils coach Jacques Lemaire said. “We felt like that before the game, because if we lost and Tampa Bay won, we’re two points behind with three to go, which is kind of hard.”
“You could just tell that our intensity level was much better the last couple of games,” said Andreychuk, who has four goals in the last four games.
