JEWEL IN CROWN
Rangers rally past Devs in SO as King gets milestone win
Here was the save that had been missing, the reading of the play that enabled Henrik Lundqvist not only to give his Rangers a chance to steal two points from the Devils, but also for him to move his way up to a very personal pedestal in the history books.
With just 27 seconds remaining in what was a raucous 3-on-3 overtime, Lundqvist slid from his left to right, squared up on shooter Miles Wood and gobbled up the puck, allowing the Sunday Garden crowd to erupt with chants of his name, chants that have been a little more infrequent this season.
The scene had been set by Derek Stepan scoring the gametying goal with 1 minute 13 seconds remaining in regulation, and then finished by Lundqvist stopping three of four New Jersey shooters in the shootout to secure a 3-2 victory.
It was career win No. 389 for Lundqvist, tying him with Hall of Famer Dominik Hasek for the most wins in NHL history by a European-born goaltender. That was a fact not lost on the 34-year-old Swede.
“It’s special to me,” Lundqvist said. “He’s a player that’s been an inspiration for me growing up. I had posters of him on my wall.”
Lundqvist has had a rather tumultuous two weeks, having sat for a career-high four straight games Dec. 8-Dec. 13 while watching backup Antti Raanta shine. But he returned to his proper place Thursday in Dallas, and now has played three straight games that were arguably his three best of the season.
“As soon as I got here, I knew his preparation and his work ethic in practice,” said coach Alain Vigneault, now in his fourth season behind the bench. “That’s why he was one of the best goaltenders in the league at that time, and he continues to be.”
What’s good for Vigneault is that his Rangers (22-10-1) have now won two shootouts in a row, making it victories in six of their past seven. In a Metropolitan Division that is incredibly competitive, it is also a big loss for the Devils (12-13-6), whose season is coming perilously close to being over before Christmas.
“We pay attention, it’s hard not to,” defenseman Marc Staal said of the division, with the Flyers and Blue Jackets both on incredible hot streaks. “You can fall behind pretty quick with teams like that keep streaking. It’s some- thing we looked at the other day when we were within three or four points of like six, seven teams. So you have to keep getting points.”
If it wasn’t known before, it became clear quickly that both of these teams had played on the road the night before, and were tired coming in. The Devils went ahead 1-0 at 4:37 of the second period when former Ranger and Islander P.A. Parenteau scored on a good bounce on a power play, but Chris Kreider tied it up 1-1 at 8:10 of the third when goalie Cory Schneider lost track of the puck behind the net.
Yet Wood got the Devils back ahead just 2:22 later, and that 2-1 lead looked like it would hold up before Stepan redirected a Ryan McDonagh shot with Lundqvist on the bench for the extra attacker.
“I think that’s something that we’ve always been good at here is just staying calm and collected and just continuing to push the pace,” said Stepan, who broke a seven-game streak without a goal and now has six on the season. “I liked our response.”
And once again, it was predicated on the play of Lundqvist, who is now in the rarefied air where he said Hasek resides with the likes of Martin Broduer and Patrick Roy.
“To be up there with him now, it’s special, for sure,” Lundqvist said. “I think he’s up there with some of the best — [it is] Brodeur, Roy, and him. The way they could dominate the game was fun to watch.”
Is he one of them? With a lot of the season — and a lot of his career — still in front of him, Lundqvist answered bluntly.
“No,” he said. “I need to do a lot more. It’s fun to tie his win record, but the stuff he did for so many years, it was impressive. But I can say he’s meant a lot to me.”