NEW YORK -- In their second round win over the Flyers the New Jersey Devils displayed an extremely aggressive forecheck. They made it known that the best way for them to play defense was to go on the attack. It allowed them to roll through a Philadelphia team that scored goals at will in the first round, and left them, of all teams, as one of the most offensive teams remaining in the playoffs.

It didn't work out well for them in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final, but in their 3-2 win on Wednesday night it was all there.

Even though it was only a one goal game, and even though the final shots on goal tallies were nearly identical, it was still a night where the Devils were on top of their game. As was the case in the previous round, the possession split for the Devils was pretty much 60/40 in their favor (over 60 percent of the attempted shots came from New Jersey) and put all of the pressure on New York to continue to defend in its own end of the ice.

"In the first game we weren't really able to establish our game plan through the full 60," said Devils defenseman Bryce Salvador. "For whatever reason, it was what it was. The focus was to not get too emotionally attached to it. We just feel that if we can stick to our game plan for 60 minutes we feel like we're going to be rewarded."

And they were rewarded on Wednesday night.

After Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist did his part to limit the Devils offense to just one goal for nearly two periods (a laser of a wrist shot from Ilya Kovalchuk in the first period) the Devils ability to maintain residence in the New York end of the ice finally resulted in a couple of big goals.

With less than two minutes to play in the second period, Ryan Carter tipped a shot from Salvador past Lundqvist to tie the game at two.

It was a play that may have led to Rangers forward Marian Gaborik being stapled to the bench for most of the third period (even though John Tortorella didn't want to talk about it).

Then just under three minutes into the third period David Clarkson scored on another deflection goal from directly in front of Lundqvist to tally the eventual game-winner.

When asked if the game plan was to get traffic in front of Lundqvist and rely on those types of goals, Salvador said it's more about simply doing what it takes to win in the playoffs as opposed to any sort of plan of attack.

"In the playoffs you're not going to see many tic-tac-toe plays," said Salvador. "Most of the goals you're seeing are rebounds, crash the net, going in off a leg, bounces ... stuff like that. You just have to keep sticking to it and not get frustrated. We'll enjoy this for about five minutes and now we have an important Game 3 coming up back home."

Salvador assisted on both of the Devils final two goals to increase his point total this postseason to eight points in 14 games. That's a pretty amazing number given what he's done over the previous nine years of his career.

Prior to this season he had recorded just four points in 50 postseason games.

"I think everyone is contributing," said Salvador when asked about his sudden increase in scoring. "We're rolling four lines, we're rolling six D, and Marty's making big saves. When everyone is contributing good things happen. It's not just me, everyone is contributing."

Photo: Getty Images

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