After the early fireworks came just two seconds in, with Matt Rempe and Kurtis MacDermid headlining a 10-player line brawl, there was a hockey game played at The Garden on Wednesday night.

With the refs sending eight players to the locker room for the remainder of the match, that left both Rangers coach Peter Laviolette and Devils coach Travis Green to juggle their lines. In particular, they had to double shift their four defensemen who were left over.

That meant a lot of heavy lifting for Adam Fox (29:39), Ryan Lindgren (27:17), Erik Gustafsson (29:42), and Braden Schneider (27:36). At times, they looked exhausted. Especially in a lopsided second period that saw the Devils come back from a two-goal first period deficit to take a 3-2 lead.

But the Rangers came back with a strong third period to prevail over the Devils 4-3 on home ice. The win allowed them to sweep the season series for the first time since 2014-15.

Most notably, they kept their hold on first overall by banking two points to move up to 106 in the standings. The Stars entered tonight with 103. At last check, they were leading the Oilers 1-0.

The Hurricanes were off. The Rangers now have a five-point lead over them for the Metropolitan Division. They’ll host the Bruins tomorrow night.

Following the six fights, which included Will Cuylle defending himself against Dawson Mercer due to hitting Brendan Smith from behind, Artemi Panarin opened the scoring when he buried a pass from Alexis Lafreniere into an open side for his 45th goal of the season. Fox picked up the secondary assist.

Green challenged for offside. But the video replays confirmed that Fox kept the puck in on the line. The Devils were assessed a delay of game minor. The Rangers didn’t cash in on the power play.

They had most of the edge in play. They outshot the Devils 15-4. Tomas Nosek cross-checked Schneider to go to the penalty box. Although they didn’t score on the power play, they were able to strike once it expired.

Jack Roslovic skated around the net with the puck and set up an Alex Wennberg shot that Kaapo Kahkonen gave up a rebound on. Lafreniere was right in front for the easy finish for his 26th goal. That gave him a goal and assist to improve his career high total to 54 points.

The Rangers killed off a Vincent Trocheck hooking minor that extended to the start of the second period. However, the Devils found their legs. They got back in it thanks to some nice teamwork.

After receiving the puck from younger brother Luke, Jack Hughes maneuvered around and passed across for an Ondrej Palat one-timer that beat Igor Shesterkin from a sharp angle into the top of the net.

Suddenly, it was the Devils with the momentum. They kept attacking the Rangers’ defense. Shesterkin was forced into some difficult stops. He only faced 20 shots in the game but was good in the second.

Shesterkin couldn’t do anything about the Devils’ second goal of the period. On a strong cycle down low from Jesper Bratt, he found a wide open Smith in front for the equalizer. Nobody took Smith on the blown coverage.

At that point, Laviolette took his timeout. He wasn’t pleased with how his team was playing. They were lackadaisical defensively and didn’t have much going on.

Instead of regaining their composure, they let Bratt wheel around and set up Nico Hischier for the Devils’ third straight goal in the period. It came 1:31 later.

The Devils took a one-goal lead to the locker room.

In the third period, the Rangers responded well. Beginning to take over the action, they would draw even thanks to a great solo effort from Kaapo Kakko.

Luke Hughes attempted a slap shot at the Rangers’ blue line. But he broke his stick. That allowed Kakko to steal the puck and break in the opposite direction. With Hughes chasing him to apply pressure, Kakko had enough strength to get off a good wrist shot from the left circle that went by Kahkonen’s glove upstairs to tie the game.

The unassisted tally gave Kakko goals in three of the last four games. That’s a good sign. The Rangers certainly can use a more confident Kakko for the playoffs.

With the game still tied, Smith hooked Roslovic to give the Blueshirts a power play with less than seven minutes left. Following a Devils’ clear, Panarin grabbed the puck and skated up ice, and gained the zone. He dropped the puck off for a Fox shot pass that Kreider tipped home in front for his 36th goal to give the Rangers a 4-3 lead with 4:57 remaining.

They wouldn’t relinquish it. The Devils lifted Kahkonen for an extra attacker with under two minutes to go. Although they applied some pressure due to Hughes, they never got the kind of chance needed to force overtime.

With time winding down, Hughes lost the puck to Panarin, who cleared it. When the buzzer sounded, the Rangers had their league best 51st win if the season.