Devils can't solve Lundqvist or his shot blockers

Pete DeBoer's team has to get shots past the five guys in front of the Rangers' goaltender.

Lundqvist stopped 21 shots in his fifth career playoff shutout and his teammates prevented another 26 attempts from even reaching him in a 3-0 victory on Monday night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals.

"That's the way they play," said Devils captain Zach Parise after New Jersey's four-game postseason winning streak was snapped. "They play very defensive, They block a lot of shots. We expect that for the rest of the series."

If the Devils had any doubts about the Rangers' willingness to block shots, New York forward Derek Stepan put them to rest in the opening period when he went down to block a blast from the point by Ilya Kovalchuk.

Stepan limped to the bench and bent over in pain, but the tone was set. The Rangers time after time threw their bodies in front of Devils shots.

"They were blocking a lot of shots, but we know that's the way they play," Kovalchuk said. "We have to find the lanes. We'll see what we didn't do right tomorrow morning and we'll be better next game."

Kovalchuk said blocking shots is nothing new for the Rangers. They did it all season in posting the best record in the conference.

"We had a couple of great chances in the second period and he (Lundqvist) kept them in the game. That's not a big deal. We'll see what we did wrong and we'll do better."

One thing Kovalchuk said the Devils can do is fake some shots, skate a little and find the opening so the puck reaches the goaltender.