Devils own Rangers

Devils roster

"Tonight I didn't have as much jump as last night. I didn't feel as good as I had before, despite the two goals," McKay said. "We got on top of them in the second period. We were able to hold them off."

The Devils extended their unbeaten streak against the Rangers to 13 games. New Jersey is 9-0-4 against its Hudson River rivals since January 12th, 1997.

Martin Brodeur in New Jersey's goal played a strong game making 30 saves, which included stopping John MacLean and Wayne Gretzky on breakaways. Brodeur also made a key save in the end of the second period on Todd Harvey's wrist shot on power-play.

"The best save was on Harvey. I got it with my toe. The net was open and I just kicked out my leg," said Brodeur. "The one on MacLean was important. We had scored and I didn't want to let them back in the game."

It was the second time in three weeks that the Devils denied the Rangers (15-16-7) a chance to go over .500 for the first time this season.

"What it was was a mid-term exam to see where we are," New York coach John Muckler said. "And they outchanced us and beat us. They scored goals better than we scored goals. But there were a lot of things that were even in the hockey game, a lot of things we did very well, but we still haven't beaten them. And therefore, the barometer is we have to get a little bit better to beat them."