Stops 40 in gem; Mats nets OT winner
For those who ever wonder how much athletes take losses home with them or how much they affect their lives beyond competition, here is Henrik Lundqvist admitting after his latest feat of strength, a herculean 40-save performance in the Rangers’ 2-1 overtime win Friday night against the Red Wings, that losing does indeed negatively impact his everyday mood.
“To me, there’s only one thing that makes me laugh a lot, and that’s winning. It’s hard for me to enjoy anything away from the rink, at the rink, when we’re not winning,” Lundqvist said after tying his season-high in saves for the second time in eight days. “In our last 11 games here, 9-2, it’s easier to relax. It’s important to me that we do well and that we’re winning. That’s the best solution.”
And the Rangers (12-9-2) have been doing a lot of that lately after a brutal 12-game start to the season. They’ve won three straight and nine of their last 11 contests, this one sealed by a Mats Zuccarello goal 37 seconds into the extra three-on-three period, sending a Gar- den crowd that was as loud as it had been all season into a frenzy. The only puck to get through Lundqvist Friday came with two seconds remaining on a power play at 4:05, which broke the donut deadlock caused by a thrilling goaltending display between Lundqvist and Jimmy Howard before Chris Kreider tied the game at 10:17. In the six games Lundqvist and Howard have faced off in their careers, no more than four total goals have been scored; two ended 2-1 and two ended 1-0.
Lundqvist has stopped all 70 evenstrength shots he’s faced over the last three games. In his last 10 games, Lundqvist has a 2.05 goals against average and a .937 save percentage.
“He’s confident in there. Looks like he’s enjoying himself,” Marc Staal said of Lundqvist. “It looks like he’s having some fun. He’s smiling and competing really hard.”
The Rangers were outshot 17-6 in a rough first period before turning it around in the second, when Howard stopped all of the Blueshirts’ 16 shots.
“I think the first period we played really bad and we weren’t into the game at all,” Zuccarello said, before jokingly adding, “too much turkey yesterday for some of the guys maybe.”
There was a feeling when the Rangers fell behind early in the third that they wanted to get one back for Lundqvist, considering it took 35 shots for Detroit to finally get on the board. “He did his job tonight, and we owed it to him to do ours,” Kevin Shattenkirk said.
They ultimately did, keeping their run going and thus their goalie happy.
“To see me laugh,” Lundqvist said, “that’s what we have to do.”
BOO NOT HIP: Center Boo Nieves suffered a hip pointer in the first period, tried to play in the second but left early and didn’t play the final 37:07.
Vigneault said it “shouldn’t be something serious.”