Game On!

I'll be blogging live from the press box to give you the feel of being inside The Garden for Game 3.

7:00pm  Coldplay's "Clocks" begins to play with video of the greatest moments in Rangers history. The crowd is electric. The Who's "Baba O'Riley" with an "I am a Ranger" video. The building begins to shake, and the highlights of the first two games begin to play.
 
7:06pm The Rangers hit the ice. The place is now ready to explode. John Amirante sings the National Anthem and we are ready to play.

7:17pm  What looks like a Sergei Brylin kick-in off an Aaron Asham rebound to give the Devils a 1-0 lead, is reviewed and later ruled that it wasn't a distinct kicking motion. Replays appear to show that Blair Betts deflected the puck past Henrik Lundqvist.

7: 27pm  Fredrik Sjostrom's hard work down low is rewarded as Johnny Oduya takes a penalty after tirelessly chasing Sjostrom behind the Devils' net.

7:30pm  Seconds after the power play begins, Brendan Shanahan heads to the box for hooking. Ah, some good 4-on-4!

7:33pm  A few ticks into the 4-on-4, the puck is dumped into the Devils zone, and while Martin Brodeur skates out of his crease to get the puck, he is bumped by Sean Avery. The crowd loves it and chants "AVERY-AVERY." The 4-on-4 provides good action, but no goals.

7:38pm  After Paul Mara hit the post from the left point, Brandon Dubinsky deposits a spinning wrister past Brodeur from the right side. Time of the goal 12:17. Score now tied, 1-1. The Garden begins to serenade Brodeur with the "Mar-ty, Mar-ty" chant.

7:43pm  Danius Zubrus is beaten to an icing, goes into the boards back-first and a scrum ensues, including Avery handing Patrik Elias a face-wash. No penalties are handed out, but the whole mess could have been avoided if the current icing rule was changed to no-touch.

7:48pm  Avery is called for goaltender interference. He was tripped by a Devil into Brodeur. No matter, seconds later Parise gets sent to the box for cross-checking; a makeup call perhaps? More 4-on-4 action. Good stuff!

7:52pm  The period ends and the Ranger faithful are pleased.

8:11pm  Amazingly, Mike Mottau backhands the puck on his own net. Brodeur makes the save. The Devils head down the ice and Ryan Callahan takes a high-sticking penalty.

8:15pm  Now, with Elias playing the left point on the power play, the Devils still can do very little. Elias is beaten by Martin Straka for a shorthanded chance, but a pass is broken up (I always dislike forwards playing the point on the power play for that very reason. They just have trouble transitioning to D). The Devils power play ends without a goal once again, even though the Rangers looked a bit sloppy on the PK.

8:17pm  Now Vitaly Vishnevski heads to the box and 10 seconds later Bryce Salvador joins him after sending the puck over the glass in the defensive zone. A 5-on-3 and huge opportunity for the Rangers.

8:21pm  Avery is literally lifting his stick to block Brodeur's line of site. The puck leaves the zone, but only briefly. Now Gomez has it in the corner and finds a wide open Avery ??? of course - in front and Avery slams it home, 2-1 Rangers. Yup, you know it. The patented sliding fist pump. Three goals in three playoff games for Avery. There go the "AVERY-AVERY" chants again.

8:25pm  After several games off, Dancin' Larry from the blue seats makes his return to GardenVision, dancing to the music and the MSG crowd goes nuts.

8:34pm  Uh oh, Fedor Tyutin goes to the box for closing his hand on the puck and just seconds later Elias scores the equalizer on the power play. Once again tied up, 2-2.

8:38pm  Now Michal Rozsival heads to the box for high-sticking. I don't know about you, but this is getting ridiculous! My God, this is the 14th penalty of the night. This is playoff hockey, let 'em play for heaven's sake.

8:40pm  Jamie Langenbrunner sends a cross-ice pass to Parise on the right side of Lundqvist. Parise sends a weak backhand on net that somehow beats Lundqvist, who was down before the shot. A power play goal. Devils lead, 3-2.

8:46pm  The second period ends with players coming together and it's announced that Elias will start the period in the sin-bin. That will help the Rangers as the Devils are in control. The Rangers were unable to get anything going since Avery's goal, mostly because they have been in the box. Down a goal going into the third may be a mountain for the Blueshirts to climb. The power play with fresh ice might help.

9:06pm The third period starts and the Rangers are on the power play.

9:07pm  Just under a minute into the power play, Dubinsky scores to knot the game at 3-3. The Garden erupts. I can't believe my eyes, I see a vendor singing the Ranger's goal song. I hope the referees swallow their whistles the rest of the way.

9:16pm  Al Pacino comes on the scoreboard with his "Any Given Sunday" ra-ra speech. The crowd is into it.

9:19pm  The period certainly does not have a playoff look to it, considering the game is wide open. Brian Gionta is robbed by Lundqvist from point-blank range, and Straka misses the net by inches on the other end. There has been very little dumping of the puck, but I expect that to change the rest of the way as the two clubs tighten up. 8:40 left in the game.

9:28pm  With 6:59 left Straka goes to the box for boarding Travis Zajac. Not a call I like with such little time left of a playoff game. But it seems that's the way it's being called this postseason. It's the 17th penalty of the game!

9:33pm  With 2:36 left, Callahan, Chris Drury and Avery are heading up the ice. Avery heads to the net and the puck is sent his way. He crashes into Brodeur and Brodeur is down! Big scrum ensues, Colin White and Avery head to the box. More 4-on-4 action. Brodeur is OK.

9:38pm  Dan Girardi blasts one from the point and Brodeur makes a game-saving right pad save. His form brilliant as usual.

9:39pm  3...2...1... WE'RE HEADED TO OVERTIME!

9:45pm  Peter Halter, of section 424, row B, wearing a blue Brian Leetch jersey peeks over to the press box TV to see the Yankees are losing 6-1 to the Red Sox. It soon becomes 7-1, but who cares. Playoff overtime hockey. Here come the oooh's and ahhh's...

9:58pm   Lundqvist makes a big stop on Elias moments after Gionta hits the post. Scary moments for Ranger fans.

10:06pm   Off a faceoff to the left of the Ranger net, the puck goes into the corner and Jay Pandolfo gets it to John Madden who shoots with no angle. The puck hits Marc Staal's skate and goes five-hole to beat Lundqvist and the Rangers; Devils win 4-3. Rangers still lead two games to one, but now the pressure is on to retain home-ice advantage in Game 4.  It will no doubt be a massively pivotal game.

See you Wednesday, live at MSG.