NEW YORK _ Turns out, the youthful Devils can handle adversity.
Less than 24 hours after stumbling for the first time this season, and being forced out of their structure, the Devils responded with a 3-2 win over the reeling Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.
This despite goalie Keith Kinkaid (29 saves), getting his first start of the season, being the only reason the Rangers didn't break open the game in the first period as the Devils (4-1-0) spent the time chasing the puck and watching the Rangers (1-5-0) outshoot them 14-3 over the first 20 minutes.
It seemed a repeat of the Devils' 5-2 loss to the Capitals at Prudential Center, when both coach John Hynes and left wing Taylor Hall lamented the team's inability to handle adversity, was at hand.
But Hynes shortened his bench to nine forwards early in the second period on, benching second-year pro Pavel Zacha and veterans Marcus Johansson and Jimmy Hayes.
And the Devils responded with three unanswered goals on Rangers' backup Ondrej Pavelec (16 saves), starting his first game this season for Henrik Lundqvist. The Rangers also lost, 3-1, at Columbus on Friday night and have dropped three straight.
Coveted free agent defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk brought the Rangers within a goal with 56.8 seconds left and Pavelec pulled for an extra skater.
Kinkaid had not played since stopping 42 shots in a 3-0 split-squad preseason loss to the Islanders at Barclays Center on Sept. 25. That capped a strong preseason for the 28-year-old Long Island native in which he stopped 85 of the 89 shots he faced in two and a half games.
He showed no signs of rust despite the long layoff as he was the lone reason the sluggish Devils remained in a scoreless tie through the first 20 minutes.
Kinkaid stopped 14 shots in the first period, among them stopping J.T. Miller skating to the left post, grabbing Rick Nash's shot from the right circle, and then Pavel Buchnevich from nearly the same spot and also denying defenseman Brady Skjei as he got low in the slot.
The Rangers took the game's first six shots before defenseman Damon Severson took a long blast on Pavelec through traffic on the power play. Severson then took the Devils' first even-strength shot at 16:16, when the Devils were being outshot 13-1, and fellow defenseman Steven Santini had the Devils' only other shot at 19:09.
That's when Hynes tried to rouse his slumbering team by breaking up his top line of Zacha in between Taylor Hall and right wing Kyle Palmieri to juggle his combinations.
Hall moved to No. 1 overall pick Nico Hischier's left wing along with Drew Stafford, Palmieri was put with Adam Henrique and left wing Miles Wood and rookie Jesper Bratt was moved to Blake Coleman's left wing with Brian Gibbons. Hynes skipped Zacha's new line with Johansson and Hayes through the first rotation of the period and when that trio did get on the ice, Kinkaid had to sprawl to stop Kevin Hayes at the right post. Zacha did not play the rest of the period and Jimmy Hayes and Johansson only got one more shift the rest of the second period.
And the Rangers finally broke through seconds later as Rick Nash, getting an across-the-crease feed from David Desharnais, made it 1-0 at 5:31 of the second period.
Hynes tinkered further and put Gibbons and Wood on Henrique's line and Palmieri with Coleman and Bratt and the Devils tied the game on their seventh shot as Gibbons, after a strong forecheck, fed Henrique just inside the right circle, where he beat Pavelec over his right shoulder at 10:21.
Wood then tipped in defenseman Ben Lovejoy's blast from the right point for a 2-1 lead at 16:41 as the Devils outshot the Rangers, 12-3, in the second period.
Stafford, returning to the lineup after a three-game absence because of a lower-body injury, took a feed from rookie defenseman Will Butcher, who has a franchise record eight assists in his first five NHL games, lifted a power-play backhander past Pavelec at the crease at 1:00 of the third period with the Devils skating four on three.
