Trailing 2-1 late in the second period at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night, center Ryan Carter (one goal) deflected a shot by defenseman Bryce Salvador (two assists) to get New Jersey even, and early in the third period, right winger David Clarkson (one goal) did the same on a shot by center Adam Henrique (one assist) to provide what proved to be the game-winning score, as the visiting, sixth-seeded Devils silenced a sellout crowd with a 3-2 victory to even their best-of-seven series with the top-seeded Rangers at a game apiece.

Carter’s goal earned a trip to businesslike head coach John Tortorella’s doghouse for right winger Marian Gaborik, New York’s leading goal scorer (by far, with 41 scores) during the regular season. Tortorella was apparently upset at his star for failing to clear the puck out of the Rangers’ zone and for compounding that problem by not going along with his team’s trademark of blocking the shot taken by Salvador (two assists), which led to Carter’s tip-in. As a result, Gaborik (no points in 20 shifts and 15:21 of ice time) was benched for about 13 minutes as New York failed to score for the entire third period.

Right winger Steve Bernier (one assist), who took a boarding penalty which led to a key third-period goal that helped the Rangers win Game 1, redeemed himself when he assisted on Carter’s goal by feeding Salvador, who then fired straight away at the net. With his back to the net, Carter made a brilliant redirection of Salvador’s shot, putting his stick low and slightly to his left, to steer the puck to the left of goaltender Henrik Lundqvist (24 saves, three goals against) and into the net with 1:51 left in the second period.

As nice as Carter’s deflection was, Clarkson’s was even tougher and better, as New Jersey worked the puck around the New York zone nicely, from left to right. Salvador and Henrique each posted their sixth assists of the postseason when Salvador set up Henrique for a drive from the right wing that appeared to be sailing left, just wide of the net, until Clarkson stuck his stick in the air, but low enough to avoid a high-sticking penalty, and rerouted the puck down and past Lundqvist, for the final goal of the game, 2:31 into the third period.

Prior to the Devils’ last two goals, it was the Rangers who scored in succession in the second period, to take their only lead, on goals by defenseman Marc Staal (one goal) and rookie center Chris Kreider (one goal), who continues to be a pleasant surprise for New York, scoring his fourth postseason goal after only joining the Rangers and the league three games into the postseason.

New York got a break when center Brad Richards (one assist) fired wide right off of a pass by defenseman Dan Girardi (one assist) and the puck caromed off of the boards behind the net and back in front of the net, where Staal was able to barely poke the puck just under the left pad of goaltender Martin Brodeur (25 saves, two goals against) to tie the game 1-1, just 2:23 into the second period.

Later, an interference penalty on center Travis Zajac (no points, one penalty) was costly for the Devils as center Artem Anisimov (one assist) fed defenseman Anton Stralman (one assist) who fired a shot from the right wing that was slightly touched in mid-air by the stick of Kreider, in front of the net, to the left of Brodeur. The 40-year-old, who won his 108th playoff game in his 19th season, couldn’t handle the fluttering puck as it went end-over-end and ever so slightly over his left arm to give the Rangers their only power play goal (in four chances) of the night, and their lone lead of the game, with 7:41 remaining in the period.

It was the only period of the three in which New York outshot New Jersey, as the Rangers held a 12-9 shot advantage over the middle 20 minutes after being the more aggressive team while taking the first six shots of the frame.

The opposite was true from an energy standpoint in the opening period, when the Devils outshot the Rangers 8-5 and took a 1-0 lead 13:39 into the game, as New Jersey’s leading goal scorer during both the regular season (37 goals) and the postseason (six goals), left winger Ilya Kovalchuk (one goal), blasted a shot from the left wing to the left of Lundqvist. The shot briefly found the net just inside the right post before immediately popping back out of the cage, for New Jersey’s only power play goal in three extra-man opportunities, making New York pay for a slashing penalty on center Brian Boyle (no points, one penalty) just 32 seconds earlier.

Although the Rangers, which had 26 of the 41 blocked shots in Game 1, threw themselves in front of 16 of the 23 shots that were blocked in Game 2, it was the one missing block from their best player –Gaborik – which turned the game and the series in an instant.

The Rangers however, have been down this road before, having won Game 1 while losing Game 2 in each of their two previous playoff rounds to reach the Eastern finals with their Atlantic Division rival Devils, after notching consecutive Game 7 victories.

While that more immediate history is on New York’s side, the Rangers will have to overcome some NHL history while attempting to be the first Stanley Cup winner after starting the postseason with a pair of Game 7 wins.

Each team will look to break the series tie with a victory as the series shifts to New Jersey for the next two games, beginning with Game 3 on Saturday afternoon at 1 pm ET.

On one side, you have the Devils’ Marty Brodeur – the Greatest of All Time or the G.O.A.T. to use a tennis term to describe Roger Federer – who at the age of 40 does get torched every once in a while, but still has a Mariano Rivera quality to him.

Then on the other is Henrik Lundqvist of the Rangers, arguably the greatest right now. And watching Lundqvist play is like watching Pedro Martinez paint the corners in his prime.

Both goaltenders play different styles with Lundqvist’s well choreographed butterfly having him dropping down like a dancer, while Brodeur’s hybrid standup style, makes him flop all over the crease. It’s not pretty but it gets the job done.

And after two games, it’s Lundqvist- 1 and Brodeur- 1 with the latter on the winning end of a 3-2 decision in Game 2.

“Key saves at key times,â€� said coach Pete DeBoer about his goaltender.  “You’re on your heels.  It’s the third period, they’re given a push.  I thought the third period was his best, and that’s when you need him to be his best.â€�

And the G.O.A.T. came through no matter what the Rangers threw at them. Brodeur held the Rangers in check as the time ticked off in the third. He stopped all Blueshirt chances late in route to his 23 saves on the night.

But at his tender age, how does he feel on a hard day’s night?

“I  felt pretty good,â€� Brodeur said.  “A little tired now.  Kind of overworked  myself  sometimes for no reason.  It was good.  The guys played well  in  front  of me.  I saw most of the pucks.  But the Rangers came out pretty  strong.   They  had  a lot of shots – a lot of crashing the net and, being around without touching me they were just around me a lot.â€�

To make it even more difficult , he had to play at Madison Square Garden, an arena, which because of its use and proximity to a train station, makes conditions not very optimal.

“It’s  a  tough place to play,â€� he added.  “There’s so many bad bounces.  The ice is not  good,  the boards are awful and the glass makes crazy bounces everywhere.   In  the second period I think two or three just went right in front of my net.

“So mentally it’s a tough game to play because you really have to look at the puck all game long.â€�

Here’s the rub on Brodeur. At his advanced age, you have to wonder if this is his last long ride through the playoffs. We have seen a number of Hall of Famers, like Chris Chelios and Mark Messier, play into their mid-40s, but goaltenders seem to have a shorter shelf life and Brodeur may be reaching his expiration date.

If the Devils go on and win the Stanley Cup this year, he may just retire, but the competitor in him will want to come back if his team falls short.

Of course, money, willingness to sign him on the Devils end ,and that lockout looming may have something to say about his future, but first and foremost, the Devils have a playoff series to win.

And this will be decided over the next two weeks or even month, as the G.O.A.T continues on in the with his quest.

However, this year the Devils are not relying on Brodeur to be the Greatest. In fact on this team, he probably isn’t even the best player.

Unlike Lundqvist, who needs to be fine every night for his team to win, the Devils can score with the best of them. After being shut out in Game 1, DeBoer changed game plans and had his team cycle in the offensive zone, creating lanes for his shooters.

It allowed his star Ilya Kovalchuk to open the scoring in the first and Ryan Carter and David Clarkson to be in front of Lundqvist for redirections into the net.

Three goals was good enough for the win tonight and now the Devils have taken home ice away from the Rangers.

With two games in Newark coming up, you have to wonder if the Devils have it in them to put their skate blade down on the Rangers throat.

“Well,  you  know we have to take care of business at home,â€� DeBoer said.  “It’s a tough building to win in.  And it’s nice to get a split.  But there’s a lot of hockey left.  And glad to be going home for two.â€�

And now it’s going to be Lundqvist’s turn for something great on the road. Brodeur wrote a spectacular chapter tonight and looks to finish his story next week.

But Collins did not want any retaliation against his star player, which set off some controversy in the dugout and after the game.

David Wright

Terry Collins

D.J. Carrasco

Dillon Gee

After a slow first period, where both teams just sniffed each other out, the New Jersey Devils came out strong in the second period, putting pressure on the Rangers and forcing mistakes by some of the Broadway’s finest. Stellar performances by both goaltenders kept the game tied at zero at the forty minute mark. At that point, the best plays by the Rangers were acts of damage control, and their penalty-kill unit posed a bigger offensive threat than their power play unit.

And then the second intermission happened, and fifty three seconds into the third period, Dan Girardi turned his game around with a slap shot off Chris Kreider’s pass. Eleven minutes later, Girardi started another drive, which ended with Kreider using a feed by Artem Anisimov to double the Rangers lead. The final score was tallied by the third-line trio into the empty net – Ruslan Fedotenko to Brian Boyle to Anisimov.

In play-off games, the momentum shifts pretty quickly, and, as we have seen over and over again, one goal will decide a game. That’s why Dan Girardi’s transformation between second and third periods was so important to this game. That’s also why Girardi got to wear the Broadway hat after this win. “It wasn’t our best two periods,” said Girardi after the game. “We had to just go hard, play our style of game, and work hard on the forecheck and it worked out for us.” In the post-game press conference, Henrik Lundqvist smiled about having to make one of his best saves of the evening on Dan Girardi, and expressed his trust in the defenseman. “…He’s so confident,” said Lundqvist on Girardi.  “He’s strong with the puck both ways. And one missed play is not going to affect him at all. I thought he played really strong the whole night and helped out in front blocking shots. I always know what to expect from him, and it’s a great feeling as a goalie.”

Chris Kreider has, according to John Tortorella, “played well.” Tallying a goal and an assist in this game, Kreider has been quite a force in the Rangers offense. “He’s got a lethal shot and if he gets a second to get it off, scary things can happen,” said defenseman Ryan McDonagh. “We just told him to keep moving his feet and keep moving his legs and get in on the forecheck. Him and Hags (Carl Hagelin) are key guys for us and it’s great for him to score that goal.” He has only played 13 games with the New York Rangers, but he has fit right in with his work ethic and his drive. “The last thing I want to do is settle in,” said Kreider. “I don’t want to get complacent, especially at this level. If I get complacent, the next thing you know I’m minus 2 and giving Ovechkin a one-timer in the slot. I have got to stay extremely focused obviously.”

The Rangers needed the momentum to shift quite a few times throughout the last two games, and they looked to Brian Boyle to be the momentum master, especially when it came to killing penalties. In the first game of the Eastern Conference finals, he put in 3:48 shorthanded, second only to Dan Girardi. “I feel like I’d been fighting the puck a little bit lately, so I need to be plugged in and do a good job to have an effect on the game,” said Brian Boyle on his play in the penalty-kill unit. “I take pride in that. It’s a good opportunity for me to be on the ice and have an impact, with (Brandon) Prust there and Cally (Ryan Callahan). Those two guys, they’re fun to kill with, they help out a lot. And our D had been huge on the PK.” Boyle’s line with his locker room neighbors Ruslan Fedotenko and Artem Anisimov combined for the empty net goal at 18:33. “It was a great play by Feds (Ruslan Fedotenko),” said Boyle about the goal. “That’s his veteran presence. He makes the play to me, and Artie (Artem Anisimov) puts it in. Sometimes those are tougher than they look… I knew he (Artem Anisimov) would have a sure goal if I got it over to him.”

It takes sixteen play-off wins to get the Stanley Cup. With a Monday night win over the Devils, the Rangers are now more than halfway through. “We start the series with a 1-0 lead. It’s very important. Now we move on right away to Game 2, and we want for the first time to get a 2-0 lead,” said Brad Richards, looking forward to Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.

The countdown continues with seven wins to go.

Thanks, John, but your idea won’t work. Well, two years into the process, it looks like the John McEnroe Tennis Academy may just be on to something. The original facility on Randall’s Island is teeming with over 600 players from around the tri-state area — ones who go to school and then come and train afterwards and on select weekends. How successful is it?

On Monday, the Academy announced a new local director and an expansion into both Westchester and Long Island (along with a new tennis club in the Westchester town of Eastchester) to give even more young people exposure to the Johnny Mac system. The annexes and the original club at Sportime Randall’s Island will now be headed Lawrence Kleger, a 25-year tennis veteran coach who was hand-picked by McEnroe to be the Academy’s new Director of Tennis.

While maybe not the uber-coach that the international set would know, Kleger is a great reflection of what the JMTA has set out to do. He has coached more ranked junior tennis players than any other tennis coach in the history of the USTA Eastern Section, and is most proud that his students have won 18 USTA Eastern Year-End Sportsmanship Awards. In addition to running high level programs at JMTA, and at Sportime Clubs in Syosset and Bethpage on Long Island, he is also the personal coach of Noah Rubin, who now trains at JMTA and who has been Lawrence’s student since the age of 7.  Rubin is a top American prospect and achieved a career-best #18 ITF junior world ranking for boys 18 and under this January (despite having just turned 16 in February) and is top ranked in U.S. 16 and under standings.

So what does this mean for the parents who looked to McEnroe to guide their young kids? Nothing but good news. “I’m not doing this just to put my name on something, if I am doing it I will be involved, both in Westchester and on Long Island, so that I can help the coaches and get face time with the kids,” said McEnroe.  “That’s the only way this will work for me, if I’m there to guide it along.”

The expansion of the Academy, according to Sportime head Claude Okin, will give the young people now commuting to Randall’s island a better chance at balance, and McEnroe concurred.

“We will have those kids involved also come to Randall’s island, but they will now get a chance to be even more involved at these two other facilities on most days, because they will be closer to where they live,” said Okin.  That proximity will now open the Academy even more to the deep  talent pool on Long Island as well as a growing community of young people in Westchester, Rockland and the Lower Hudson Valley and New Jersey, when the new Lake Isle Facility opens in the fall.

“It all has to be about developing a well-rounded kid, and this will help us achieve that goal even more,” McEnroe added.

In order to help further the cause, the Hall of Famer has enlisted the support of another legend, Andre Agassi, to raise scholarship funds for the Johnny Mac Tennis Project. The two will square off — Agassi for the Boston Lobsters, McEnroe for the New York Sportimes, on July 19 as part of World Team Tennis at Randall’s Island. All the proceeds go to scholarships for young people looking to join the McEnroe Academy, many of whom come from households in the City who cannot afford the cost of training on any level.

“We are here to help change lives, and any way I can help John do that, especially through our sport, I will help,” Agassi added.

Details on The Academy and the facility are available at johnmcenroetennisacademy.com as well as the details on the complete Sportimes schedule, and what’s next for McEnroe and crew.

Purists, take note: a little change appears to be going a long way.

That’s all that stands between the New York Rangers and the Stanley Cup.

And after today’s  3-0 Ranger win over the Devils, the Blueshirts seem poised to continue on with their quest, thanks to good King Henrik Lundqvist who stopped 21 New Jersey shots.

“Yes, as a goalie you always have to step up when the team needs you not when you feel good and you have your moments,â€� Lundqvist said. “A lot of times it’s when the team’s struggling you have to step up.

“And it’s fun, too, to be there and try to make the difference sometimes when the team is going through a tough stretch.â€�

This is what the Rangers were looking for back in 2004 when they had a goalie dilemma. With Mike Richter retired and Dan Blackburn suffering nerve damage, essentially ending his career, the Rangers needed a No. 1 goaltender.

In fact, the Rangers were so desperate, the wasted the No. 6 pick on Al Montoya, hoping their replacement for Richter would come from there.

But they under-estimated Lundqvist. A seventh round pick in 2000, he was not high on the Rangers list, but took the team by storm.

Before the lockout started, the Rangers signed Kevin Weekes as the No. 1 goalie. Although, not an elite, he was to mind the store as either Lundqvist or Montoya would learn on the bench.

After the lockout, it was apparent Lundqvist was ready for prime time. Weekes went to the bench and Montoya was buried at Hartford.

Seven years later, Lundqvist is poised to win his first championship and is a possible choice for the Conn Smyth trophy.

How does he do it? Well wills himself to be the best player on the ice. And seeing Marty Brodeur the Greatest of All Time across the rink, it makes him better.

“Yeah, every time you play against great players, it’s exciting,â€� he said. “And already coming into the league, playing against Marty, growing up he was already a big guy over here, big name.

“And, of course, it’s inspiring and exciting to play against top guys. It always is.  So it’s always been fun.  It’s a great challenge for me to play against him.  And I remember I got a few games against Hasek, and I put him up there with him.  Just growing up they were the big guys.  So it’s always exciting, it is.â€�

And with a career record of 23-6-5 with a 1.73 goals-against average and .935 save percentage, plus five shutouts again Brodeur, you can see why he gets up for it.

With the Rangers coming out somewhat weak in the first two period, they needed Lundqvist tonight. His three save sequence on Zach Parise in the second kept the score knotted at zero, which let his Rangers come out in the third to score three times for the win.

“I think it’s going to be a tight series.  Just a big battle out there.  And I thought we made a couple of big plays there when it was a 1-0 game.  They had a few chances to tie it up.  They didn’t, and instead we scored the second one.

“And that was a big one.  But I expect it to be just a big war out there for I don’t know how many games.  But I look forward to it.  It’s a fun game, and it was intense out there but I enjoyed it.â€�

And so did 18,200 fans at Madison Square Garden. If he does it seven more times in 13 games, Lundqvist will go from Garden beloved to Garden Legend.

Of course, battling your hated metropolitan area rival to a scoreless tie through two periods before finally pulling away late in a conference final opener isn’t quite that easy.

But, given the way the top-seeded Rangers had grinded their way through this year’s postseason to that point, New York’s 3-0 whitewash of the sixth-seeded New Jersey Devils at Madison Square Garden on Monday night must have felt like a relative blowout.

After two periods of limited action, with each team basically feeling each other out, rookie center Chris Kreider and defenseman Dan Girardi each posted a goal and an assist in the first 12 minutes of the third period, and center Artem Anisimov, who assisted on the Rangers’ second goal, added an empty-net score with 1:27 remaining to give New York its largest margin of victory in the playoffs this season.

Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist stopped 21 shots for fifth career postseason shutout and his second of the playoffs this year after winning Game 3 of the first round, 1-0, on April 16th.

Meanwhile, with “Mar-ty!� chants, Ranger fans taunted 40-year-old legend Martin Brodeur, who with 24 career postseason shutouts, made his 183rd consecutive playoff start for New Jersey, the only NHL team for which Brodeur has ever played, after the Devils drafted him in the first round of the 1990 NHL draft.

New York outshot New Jersey by six while holding a 9-4 shot advantage in the last period, and unlike an evenly-played first two periods, the Rangers began to skate faster than the Devils and outhustled their Atlantic Division rivals as the third period began.

That hard work paid immediate dividends when Kreider, who only began playing in the league during Lundqvist’s previous playoff shutout 29 days earlier, set Girardi up with a pass in the Devils’ zone, that Girardi blasted past Brodeur to give the Rangers 1-0 lead just 53 seconds into the third period. The score was only Girardi’s second playoff goal in 47 career postseason games (his previous one also came this year, during the first round).

Girardi later returned the favor for Kreider when he drew a boarding penalty on right winger Steve Benier with 9:36 to go in the game and passed to Anisimov, who then fed Kreider for his third career goal, to extend New York’s lead to 2-0 with eight minutes left.

Kreider’s score was the only power play goal in a mostly clean game that featured only four penalties for each team, the first of which was a New Jersey delay of game call early in the first period.

The game kicked off a rematch of the classic 1994 Eastern finals, which featured a trio of double overtime games, including New York’s highly memorable Game 7 win, which ultimately led to the Rangers’ fourth Stanley Cup victory a round later.

Brodeur, just 22-years-old back then, is the only remaining player in the league since that season.

Now, he looks to lead the Devils to their fourth Stanley Cup win, as New Jersey is making its first appearance in the conference finals since the last time Brodeur and the Devils won the Cup in 2003. New York is playing in its first conference finals for the first time in fifteen years as it seeks its first Stanley Cup victory in eighteen years and only its second since 1940.

The physical Rangers delivered 35 of the game’s 56 hits and blocked 26 of the contest’s 41 shots as they continued to follow a similar formula which has yielded success this postseason, even if that has often come the hard way.

Six of New York’s previous eight postseason wins to reach the Eastern finals were by one goal, with two of those victories coming in overtime.

The Rangers needed to rally from a 3-2 series deficit to beat eighth-seeded Ottawa in seven games before likewise going the distance in a seven-game series with Washington in the Eastern semifinals. Should they go on to win the Stanley Cup, the Rangers would become the first team to win the NHL’s biggest prize after being pushed to a Game 7 in each of the first two rounds of the playoffs.

Thus, while New York’s offense again struggled to score over the first two periods, the Rangers were ironically able to relax a little more than usual down the stretch of their first playoff game with the team that figured to be their toughest opponent yet this postseason.

That doesn’t mean that New York can rest for long on its Game 1 victory though. Still very dangerous, New Jersey will have a chance to even the series in Game 2 on Wednesday night, back at The Garden, at 8 pm ET.

Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist stopped 21 shots for fifth career postseason shutout and his second of the playoffs this year after winning Game 3 of the first round, 1-0, on April 16th.

Below is Audio from the Devils locker room

Marty Bordeur

Ilya Kovalchuk

Zach Parise

There will be a huge line-up of the top physiques in the world in six separate categories: men’s open bodybuilding, men’s 212 bodybuilding, figure, bikini, men’s physique and women’s physique.

In the men’s open, a number of competitors will be making their professional debuts, including Steve Kuclo and Juan Morel. Big things are expected out of both and it will be an interesting rivalry that begins on Saturday, May 19 in the Empire State. Kevin English will make the switch back to the open class from the 202/212, and Cedric McMillan will look to improve on a disappointing placing out of the top ten a year ago here. From the few photos of him that have circulated online recently, it appears that Big Mac has come to do some serious damage.

Jose Raymond already has an Olympia qualification with his win in Louisiana last weekend, but appears to be the top dog here, as well. Expect huge ovations for local boys Guy Cisternino, Marco Rivera and Panexce Pierce.

One of the more interesting divisions will be the women’s physique for a number of reasons. Former bodybuilder Dayana Cadeau will be making her inaugural appearance in the new division, fan favorite Dana Linn Bailey is competing and Jillian Reville  - who has finished third and second, respectively, in her first two shows this year – will be looking to move up one more spot again and earn her first pro win.

For tickets, please visit www.bevfrancis.com

Here are the full line-ups:

In the figure competition, Monica Speckling was the winner with Jami DeBernard and Ann Titone rounding out the top three.