Rangers 2, Devils 1 (F/SO) newjerseydevils.com (Nov. 3) – With the game on his stick, John Madden's bid for another clutch goal sailed over the Ranger net.

Had he beaten Henrik Lundqvist, Madden would have kept the Devils alive and sent Saturday night's shootout to a sudden-death round.

Instead, the game ended with Peter Prucha registering the only successful attempt of the Devils' 2-1 shootout loss to the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.

Sergei Brylin scored in regulation for New Jersey (5-6-2), which finished 0-for-3 on the power play and now has two wins in its last seven games.

It was Madden's shorthanded goal that broke a 1-1 tie in the third period of Friday's win over Toronto. The Barrie, Ont., native entered Saturday's game with five points in his previous two games and a share of the team lead in goals (six) with linemate Jay Pandolfo.

But in the Devils' first shootout of the season, the trio of Madden, Zach Parise and Brian Gionta was stymied by Lundqvist.

After Prucha scored in the second round, the Devils turned to Gionta, whose forehand attempt was blocked by Lundqvist's pad.

New Jersey needed one to tie when Madden, the sixth shooter, curled in toward Lundqvist and fired his shot over top of the crossbar.

Martin Brodeur made his fifth straight start, stopping 26 shots during the game and two of three in the shootout. Brodeur got a piece of the Rangers' first attempt off the stick of Marcel Hossa, then denied Nigel Dawes in the third round.

But had it not been for some strong play from the Devils' goaltender, the game might never have made it to a shootout.

In overtime, Mike Mottau's pass to a breaking Patrik Elias was picked off by Dan Girardi, who found Chris Drury waiting at the Devils' blueline.

Drury skated in alone on a breakaway, and elected to take a slapshot from the slot that was stopped by Brodeur 1:10 into the extra session.

Both of the game's goals came in the first period. Brylin's second of the season at 6:34 evened the score just 33 seconds after Scott Gomez had scored to give the Rangers the first lead of the game.

Johnny Oduya skated in from the left point and carried the puck behind the Rangers' net, finding Brylin at the top of the crease for the tap-in goal.

Just over four minutes remained in regulation when the Devils nearly broke the 1-1 tie.

A series of Rangers miscues began with Fedor Tyutin mishandling the puck at his own blue line, and led to Lundqvist coming out of his crease for a clearing attempt that hit his own defenseman, Girardi, and stayed in the Ranger zone.

Parise was the first man to the loose puck, but couldn't stuff it through Lundqvist. After a review, it was determined that the puck had not crossed the goal line.

The loss snapped New Jersey's two-game winning streak. Head coach Brent Sutter and the Devils can now take a breather after games in back-to-back nights, but return to Prudential Center for their third game in four nights when Sidney Crosby and the Penguins visit Newark on Monday.

NJD NOTES
Parise was New Jersey's first shooter and appeared to have Lundqvist beaten when the puck rolled off his forehand and wide of the net... Mike Rupp returned to the lineup after being scratched from the last two games... Olli Malmivaara did not play. The 6-7 defenseman was called up from Lowell (AHL) on Wednesday.