A Rangers fan claims she was assaulted by three Devils fans at the Prudential Center Saturday after the playoff game, and showed NBC 4 New York bruises from the alleged encounter.
Stephanie Gorman of Brick Township said she was on the down escalators to leave the arena after the Rangers won Game 3 when a man spit on her. A second man then assaulted her, she said, putting his hands on her shoulders around her neck.
"It was terrifying, the look he gave me as he has his hands around my neck," said Gorman.
A third man also acted aggressively toward her, she said.
Gorman and her boyfriend found security officers but they were unresponsive, she said. The guards allegedly threatened to call police if the two didn't leave.
Gorman filed a report with police and was taken to the hospital.
Prudential Center security officials told NBC 4 New York they are reviewing surveillance video and investigating the incident.
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But witnesses told security officers that Gorman had been aggressive, combative and intoxicated.
Gorman said she had been drinking but "wasn't drunk."
"It bothers me to see them saying it's my fault, I was belligerent, when I know I wasn't," she said.
She said the security guards' lack of compassion after she'd been pushed into a crowd down an escalator especially bothered her.
"They didn't ask me if I was hurt, they didn't ask me if I needed help," she said. "I was pointing up to the man saying they spit on me, they pushed me, they choked me."
Gorman's father, Rich, a longtime Jersey City firefighter and a diehard Rangers fan himself, said he recognizes hockey is a rowdy sport but fans need to behave.
"The fact that somebody would spit on a woman because of a sports game is appalling," he said.
"They have to be human beings," he added. "There has to be a certain sense of adulthood."
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