NEW YORK -- Michael Nylander sat slumped at his stall and
stared ahead with a blank look on his face.
The gaze was one of disappointment and shock. And who could
blame the New York forward.
He and the Rangers had just dropped their fifth straight game
and fell from the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference all the way
to sixth in a matter of moments. The Atlantic Division title
slipped through their hands at the finish line.
"We had the division on the line for many games now and we
didn't come through," Nylander said. "It's starting from zero
again now here. The next game is a new season."
He meant the playoffs but he could've been talking about the
crazy finish that was about to occur.
The real surprise was that it wasn't the Philadelphia Flyers who
stole the crown from the Rangers, but instead the hard-charging New
Jersey Devils.
For most of the season, the Rangers sat in first place and they
still held the lofty spot Tuesday night when they hit the ice for
the finale. All they had to do to wrap up their first division
title in 12 years was beat Ottawa.
Even when it seemed as though they would fall short, the Rangers
still were in good shape to finish first because the Devils and
Flyers also were losing. The one-point lead they carried into the
night had a chance to stand up.
Not so fast.
Ottawa stretched its lead to 4-1 early in the third period about
the time the Flyers tied and went ahead of the Islanders.
Philadelphia was aware that the division was there for the taking.
During the second intermission, Flyers coach Ken Hitchcock
walked into the dressing room and wrote the out-of-town scores on
the board -- Senators 2, Rangers 1; Canadiens 2, Devils 0.
There was nothing else to say.
"We knew what was at stake," Philadelphia forward R.J.
Umberger said. "It was the most fired up we've been before a
period all season."
The Rangers fell behind 5-1 in the waning moments, and the
Flyers scored four times in the final period to dispatch the
already eliminated Islanders.
That pushed the Flyers into first place, a point ahead of the
Rangers and two in front of the Devils -- who were on the way to
having their 10-game winning streak snapped.
Yet, the most exciting part of the night still lay ahead.
Philadelphia still needed the Devils to lose because a tie in
points would fall in favor of New Jersey.
Never since the NHL went to a two-conference, four-division
format had a team come from so far behind to win a division title.
New Jersey trailed Philadelphia by 19 points on Jan. 6 and was
perilously close to missing the playoffs with just a few weeks left
in the season.
Trailing Montreal 3-0 late in the second period Tuesday night,
New Jersey cut the deficit to two goals before the intermission.
Rangers players were just starting to talk to reporters about
their monumental collapse that denied them their first division
title since 1994 and would force them to start their first
postseason appearance in nine years on the road.
Yes, going to Buffalo to face the Sabres was going to be a tough
task.
Not so fast.
A buzz permeated over the din of interviews.
"Did you hear? The Devils are only down 3-2."
The news hadn't circled the room when someone said, "Now it's
tied, 3-3."
As surprised as the throng at Madison Square Garden was, it
didn't compare to the scene in the visitors' dressing room at
Nassau Coliseum.
There the Flyers were watching the Devils rally against the
Canadiens.
Philadelphia thought it shook off a pair of blowout losses at
New Jersey in the final week of the season and was about to skate
off with the division title and home ice in the first round against
the streaking Devils.
Not so fast.
With 5:05 left, Patrik Elias scored in Montreal to tie it. Just
2:42 later, the Devils were ahead 4-3 on Jamie Langenbrunner's
goal. Sixth place suddenly became third.
"We're all taken aback and a little bit in shock because it was
done. It was over," Flyers forward Mike Knuble said.
Rangers coach Tom Renney stepped out of his office and saw
reporters watching the TV there, too. He knew the score and knew
that his slumping club was about to be locked into a matchup with
the Devils, the first NHL team to run off 11 straight wins at the
end of the season.
He was ready for his postgame news conference and didn't care if
anyone pulled themselves away from the TV to ask him questions
about how the Rangers were going to bounce back from a terrible
finish.
The shocking turn of events in the season's final hours moved
the Rangers down three spots, launched the Devils up two places,
and raised the Flyers up a seed from where they started the day.
"We figured out a little bit the last 11 games and the last few
weeks that we like to play and what we have to do to be
successful," Devils forward Patrik Elias said. "We've just got to
keep it going."
Caught in the shuffle were the Buffalo Sabres, who were locked
into fourth place in the East. They waited around after a 4-0 win
in Carolina to see who they would play next. It looked like the
Rangers but ended up being the Flyers.
"It was kind of a strange 10 or 15 minutes," Sabres forward
Chris Drury said. "Whoever we got, we got. Either way, I think
we'll be ready."