Rangers blank Devils to seize series lead

New York goaltender Henrik Lundqvist made 36 saves and the Rangers blanked the New Jersey Devils 3-0 on Saturday to take the lead in their National Hockey League playoff series. The visiting Rangers seized a 2-1 edge in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference final with the Devils hosting game four on Monday. The winner will face either Phoenix or Los Angeles in the Stanley Cup Final. New York's Dan Girardi opened the scoring with a power-play goal 3:19 into the third period and Chris Kreider found the net 1:57 later. Ryan Callahan scored with 2:13 remaining in the period to produce the final victory margin. "We work really hard and being aggressive is a big part of it," Lundqvist said. "We believe in each other. Even if we go through stretches when we struggle we stick together and we know we're going to get through it." The Rangers put only 22 shots at New Jersey goaltender Martin Brodeur while the Devils peppered Swedish netminder Lundqvist with pucks throughout. "I was just focused and really sharp," Lundqvist said. "They threw a lot of pucks in front of the net and we did a really good job of clearing them."