Lundqvist continues dominance vs. ’Canes

RALEIGH, N.C. — From utterly despondent to laughing about an outstanding personal record, it was quite the turnaround in a few days for Henrik Lundqvist.

The Rangers franchise netminder continued his assault against the Hurricanes when he made 40 stops and eliminated them from the playoffs with a 2-1 victory Saturday night.

Lundqvist is now 28-11-1 against Carolina in his career, including 19-3-0 in his previous 22 games. He came in having put up great stats against them, with his fifthbest goals-against average (2.05) and seventh-best save percentage (.929).

So this was the perfect recipe for a bounce back coming off Wednesday in Washington, when Lundqvist and his team allowed a 6-on-5, extra-attacker goal with just over a minute left in regulation then lost to the Capitals in overtime. But this time, holding that one-goal lead in the final minutes, he and his team stood tall.

“It doesn’t matter where you are in the standings, you play this game to win games,” Lundqvist said. “That’s our job to give everything we’ve got out there. That was my message to the room before we went out.”

Now with three games left, the Rangers (34-36-9) are still going to miss the playoffs for the first time in seven years, while the Hurricanes (35-33-11) will miss it for the ninth straight year.

There has been a slight change in coaching strategy for Vigneault since his roster drastically changed in the lead-up to the Feb. 26 trade deadline. Assistant coach Darryl Wil

liams has often been spending the third period on the bench next to Vigneault rather than up in the press box, where he spends the first two periods looking for changes in the opposition.

“A lot of that has to do with bringing a little bit more energy,” Vigneault said. “Darryl has seen two periods, we’ve had our game plan, and if nothing has changed, he can come down and give feedback and help us out with a little bit more teaching there. So that was our thinking process behind that.”