NEW YORK — The Madison Square Garden crowd taunted Martin Brodeur all night. In between synchronized waves of white towels, they serenaded him with chants of “Maaarty, Maaarty,” hoping to break through.

For 40 minutes, they were in vain. For the final 19:07, they were haunting reminders.

Brodeur is the other goaltender in this Eastern Conference finals series — a secondary role he has not had to play very frequently in his career.

Monday night, he did though, taking the loss and leaving amongst the defeated in the Devils’ 3-0 Game 1 loss to the Rangers.

But for all the plaudits that will be heaped on Henrik Lundqvist, who picked up his

second shutout of the postseason, it was Brodeur who played the foil perfectly for two periods.

As the Devils sputtered out of the gate, unable to get past the wall of Rangers willing to fling their bodies in front of shots — let alone get one past Lundqvist — Brodeur was also stout.

“Marty was unbelievable again for us,” Stephen Gionta said. “He gave us a chance to win.”

Brodeur made 25 saves on 27 shots, one so stellar it’s sure to be on the highlight reel.

MORE DEVILS COVERAGE

• Rangers top Devils, 3-0, to take Game 1 of Eastern Conference Final

• Politi: The Rangers are sacrificing their bodies to help out their goaltender



• D'Alessandro: Rookie Chris Kreider sparks Rangers

• Devils' Martin Brodeur: We need to get more shots on Henrik Lundqvist

• Devils need to capitalize on their few good chances

• Martin Brodeur kept the Devils in the game, he just couldn't win it for them

• Devils' Ilya Kovalchuk: Being in Rangers' shadow doesn't bother us

• Devils have narrow margin for error against Rangers



Still, he was not perfect on a night when almost-so was not good enough.

Just 53 seconds into the third period, he allowed Dan Girardi’s shot from the blue line to whistle past him.

Girardi’s shot earned a pathway past Brodeur thanks to Derek Stepan, who settled in front of the crease to inhibit his view.

That gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead. It was backbreaking.

“I felt that the first goal tonight was probably going to win,” Devils coach Pete DeBoer said. “It was that type of game.”

His foresight proved true. The Rangers scored again 11 minutes later when Chris Kreider broke through, snapping a shot past Brodeur from inside the faceoff circle. That's when the crowd's noise rained down full bore.

"Maaaarty, Maaarty."

It was all in good fun for Brodeur.

"I'm used to it," he said. "It's a great atmosphere. It's a great building to play hockey in."

Yet, Brodeur's night was just as much about saves he made, as the two shots he could not.

Down 1-0, he made a diving save on Marc Staal that forced the Rangers defenseman to his knees in contemplation of what he had just seen.

Staal seemed to have the entire near side of the net for his choosing but Brodeur sprawled to make a glove save.

“Those are the saves you need to win,” Gionta said.

Brodeur could only provide enough of them to keep the Devils in the game, not enough for them to win.

Mike Vorkunov: mvorkunov@starledger.com