Dougie Hamilton scored at 11:36 of overtime to lift the visiting New Jersey Devils to a 2-1 win against the New York Rangers on Saturday night in Game 3 of their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series.
Jesper Bratt entered the Rangers zone along the right side, cut across the slot and passed back across to Hamilton, who scored on a high glove-side wrist shot from the right circle.
“Bratter made a great play and found me,” Hamilton said after scoring his first career overtime playoff goal. “There were a lot of bodies in front.”
Game 4 is Monday night in New York. The Rangers lead the series 2-1.
Jack Hughes scored and Akira Schmid, making his first start since March 24 and first career playoff start, made 35 saves for New Jersey. Bratt had two assists and Hamilton had one.
Chris Kreider scored his fifth goal of the series for the Rangers, and Igor Shesterkin made 26 saves.
After scoring four goals on the power play in the first two games of the series, Kreider made it 1-0 at 3:39 of the second period when he entered the zone on a two-on-one with Mika Zibanejad, kept the puck and scored on a wrist shot from the edge of the left faceoff circle.
Kreider became the fastest Rangers skater to hit the five-goal mark in the postseason (three games), besting Adam Graves, who scored five goals within the first four games of the 1996 playoffs.
Shesterkin made a point-blank save on Timo Meier in the slot midway through the second period to preserve the 1-0 lead, but Hughes tied it 1-1 at 10:37, scoring with a wrist shot over Shesterkin’s blocker from the left circle during a power play. It was his second goal of the series.
The Devils’ Ryan Graves was called for high-sticking with six minutes remaining in the third period. The Rangers didn’t register a shot on goal, but Artemi Panarin shot wide from the bottom of the left circle on New York’s best chance with 4:58 remaining.
The Rangers outshot the Devils 28-23 in regulation.
–Field Level Media
