DUCK & COVER
Rangers keep streak rolling with blowout behind Lundqvist, Carey
RANGERS 4 DUCKS 1
Marc Staal took a moment to find exactly the right word, and he did.
“I think the last couple years the expectations — I wouldn’t say low — but they were ... tempered,” Staal told The Post after his Rangers won for the third straight game, taking a definitive 4-1 victory over the Ducks at the Garden on Tuesday night.
“Same thing going into this year. So I think for us, it’s a long season. The goal is to make the playoffs and get as many points as you can. And that’s our goal right now.”
Yet unquestionably, the prospects for the Rangers (19-12-3) have shifted a bit over the past month or so — and drastically shifted since their 3-7-2 start to the season. And, as good as they have looked for most of these past few weeks, they aren’t taking it for granted.
“I don’t think [the start] is that far out of our rearview mirror,” Staal said. “I think we know how quickly it can change. I think we’ve been working hard on it to make sure we don’t slip into that again.”
As always with this era of Rangers hockey, success starts in goal, where Henrik Lundqvist is in the midst of a run during which Staal said he looks as comfortable as ever. That was proven, as Lundqvist stopped all 31 shots he faced over the opening 40 minutes in his 29th start over the opening 34 games. His performance allowed fourth- liner Paul Carey to play the role of offensive hero while netting the first two-goal contest of his 54-game NHL career.
“It’s a big night. It was a lot of fun,” said Carey, who has been a constant face on the juggled fourth line that seems to always play high-percentage hockey without giving up on making skilled plays when available. “It’s nice to be rewarded. Our line is playing really well, working really hard, and it’s nice to see some pucks go in.”
With the return of top-line center Mika Zibanejad following a nine-game absence due to a concussion, that bumped David Desharnais down to fourth-line pivot and bumped rookie Boo Nieves into street clothes. If that seemed a curious decision before the game, it proved prescient. Desharnais assisted on both of Carey’s goals, the first an all-world backhanded saucer pass from the right corner that allowed Carey to bang it home with just 45.5 seconds left in the first period, rewarding Lundqvist for his outstanding early play with a 1-0 lead.
“I think the first period was the key to this game,” said Lun- dqvist, who finished with 39 saves. “We were not on top of our game and we get away with a 1-0 lead. After that, we kind of got our game going a little bit. It happens sometimes.”
The Ducks (14-13-8) are battered by injuries and had lost to the Devils, 5-3, on Monday night in Newark. The Rangers hardly allowed them any chance to come back from that late firstperiod goal, with Kevin Hayes scoring his eighth of the season just 38 seconds into the second period, followed by Carey again at 13:00 to take a decisive 3-0 lead into the third period.
Lundqvist’s shutout was ruined by a goal from Ondrej Kase at 14:43 of the third, but just for good measure, Michael Grabner added his team-leading 17th of the season on a play that was almost stopped by a diving stick-swing from Ducks forward Rickard Rakell, but was reviewed and overturned to rightfully be called a goal that made it 4-1.
It was the type of closing performance that had been rare early on this season, when the Rangers seemed like the rebuild-on-the-fly method was finally catching up to them. But now, that start seems a long time ago, and they are starting to change the perception from the inside out.
“There are a lot of things that can happen from now until [the end of the season],” Staal said. “You enjoy the confidence you have as a team right now winning, and you run with it as long as you can.”