Lundqvist won’t get chance to improve record vs. Pens

CRANBERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Henrik Lundqvist hasn’t beaten the Penguins in a regular-season game in more than three years, going back to Feb. 10, 2016. And the veteran Rangers goalie won’t get a chance to rectify that 0-5-3 ledger as he is set to backup Alexandar Georgiev for the third time in the past four games with Sunday afternoon’s match at Pittsburgh.

The most recent time Lun- dqvist faced the Penguins — a team, remember, he beat in consecutive postseason series in 2014 and 2015 — was Jan. 2, getting pulled after giving up six goals on 18 shots. That was the game coach David Quinn said he regretted playing Lundqvist, coming off a stressful twogame New Year’s trip when the Swede was phenomenal while winning at Nashville and St. Louis.

But since that point, Lundqvist — who turns 37 on March 2 — has played 11 of 17 games. Georgiev has shown flashes of brilliance in his six starts during that stretch, from his 55-save performance Feb. 10 against the Leafs on his 23rd birthday to some steady work in a 6-2 win at Buffalo on Friday night.

Quinn said Lundqvist is set to return to nets Tuesday night against the Hur- ricanes, a franchise against which he has a lifetime 2912-1 record to go with a .932 save percentage and a 2.00 goals-against average.

Recent call-up Connor Brickley made his Rangers debut Friday, and the forward was assertive in going to the net often during his 8:23 of ice time, which included an assist.

“I liked his game,” Quinn said of the 26-year-old journeyman who was pulled from AHL Hartford on Thursday morning. “I thought he had a lot of straight line to his game. I thought he had purpose to his game. Going to the net is always a good thing. I liked what I saw.”

Defenseman Brady Skjei did not practice after leaving Friday night’s game midway through the second period after an awkward collision into his knee. He was walking around without any sort of limp at the Penguins practice facility, about a half-hour outside the city, and said he was “fine” and that he felt “good.”

Quinn called him “a game-time decision.”

Fellow blueliner Fredrik Claesson was cleared to play for the first time since he suffered a rightshoulder injury Jan. 12 against the Islanders. It’s uncertain if he will dress Sunday, as Quinn said after practice it was “unclear what we’re going to do tomorrow as we stand here today.”