REST IS HISTORY
Hank stellar for 2nd straight, Mats wins it in OT
BOSTON — There was a degree of surprise Saturday afternoon when Alain Vigneault said he was turning to Henrik Lundqvist not just for the second straight day, but less than 24 hours removed from their previous start time with Saturday’s game beginning at 5 p.m.
With each passing save Lundqvist made against the Bruins, surprise dissipated. Ah, yes, this is why Lundqvist was out there again, because he thrives in these situations, and Vigneault put another “big game” label on this one as he did a week earlier. And for the second straight night, Lundqvist made 33 saves in the Rangers’ 3-2 overtime win, finished off by Mats Zuccarello’s power-play goal.
“I feel like the more I play, the more relaxed I get,” said Lundqvist, who said he was tired after Friday’s win against the Kings but told Vigneault he wanted to play Saturday. “It’s something we talked about over the summer: Playing back-to-backs and playing more games helps me to be in the right mindset. Physically it’s more challenging, but mentally it’s easier, I find. But the biggest part of the game is the mental aspect.”
Lundqvist has played both ends of a backto-back 81 times, and in the second game of those he’s 53-21-7 with a 2.02 goals against average, .930 save percentage and nine shutouts. In his last eight such starts, Lundqvist is 8-0 with a 1.73 GAA and .948 save percentage, allowing two or fewer goals in all eight, which included last Saturday’s 5-2 win over the Devils.
The Rangers (18-12-3) finished this stretch of six games in nine nights by winning each of the last two nights after dropping two straight. Ondrej Pavelec was slated to start at least two of those six games but only did once, though he started the game in Pittsburgh that preceded that stretch.
“It was a big game. Henrik had been playing real well, and I just thought it was the right thing to do,” Vigneault said. “We’re definitely gonna need (Pavelec) here as we move forward, but I thought for (Saturday) we needed to do this.”
Seven of the game’s 12 penalties were assessed to the Rangers, who were not as good as they were the previous evening, perhaps fatigue setting in during the third period with their second start time in 22 hours; Boston didn’t play Friday. Brad Marchand’s powerplay goal tied the game at 2 apiece 5:38 into the third when he was wide open in the right circle as both Marc Staal and Boo Nieves abandoned that side of the ice. But the Rangers’ top-ten penalty kill finished 6-for-7.
Michael Grabner’s bank off the end glass deflected off Tuukka Rask’s back and in at 14:42 of the first for Grabner’s team-best 16th goal of the season. J.T. Miller’s powerplay goal off a breakaway set up by Ryan McDonagh doubled the Rangers’ lead before Danton Heinen was left alone in front for a tip.
A too-many-men penalty by the Bruins in overtime gave the Rangers a four-on-three, and Zuccarello waited for Chris Kreider’s screen before snapping home the winner, redeeming a self-admitted rough night.
“I didn’t think we played our best game today. I was probably the worst player out there,” Zuccarello said.
In his last 12 games, Lundqvist has a 2.12 GAA and .936 save percentage and he has been the biggest reason the Rangers have been able to pull themselves into playoff position after their woeful start.
“He was definitely in the zone. We’ve seen it many times throughout the season,” Ryan McDonagh, whose game appears to be turning positively, said of Lundqvist. “It’s great to see him playing with confidence there, being aggressive. He’s just making such good reads. He’s coming out on guys and they don’t have a lot of room, taking away their time and space and making those tough saves side-to-side.”
Lundqvist even had an old-school stand-up kick save with his left pad with 2:55 remaining in regulation to deny Torey Krug.
“You mix in everything you’ve got,” Lundqvist said. With zero days of rest, the Rangers can’t ask anything more from him.