Rangers blank Canadiens for first win

Henrik Lundqvist bounced back after getting roughed up the previous night and helped the New York Rangers get their first win of the season.

The veteran goalie stopped 34 shots for his 62nd career shutout to lead the Rangers to a 2-0 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday night.

Lundqvist was stellar in getting his 406th career win one night after getting pulled after giving up five goals in the first period of an 8-5 loss at Toronto. He is now one away from tying Glenn Hall for ninth place on the NHL’s career wins list.

“I felt like we played more our style where it’s more in control and we use our speed when there’s an opportunity for it,” Lundqvist said. “And for me, every period a couple extra saves were enough. It was not like I needed to make eight, nine big ones. It was a couple extra here and there, and the rest, the guys took care of it. It was a great team win here tonight and a great bounce back for us.”

Brady Skjei scored on a fortunate bounce in the first period and Mika Zibanejad got his fourth of the season in the third to help the Rangers improve to 41-12-4 in games following a loss dating back to Dec. 22, 2015.

“When we made some mistakes, Hank came up with the right saves at the right time,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. “That’s what we need from our goaltender, that’s what we needed from our team.”

Montreal had two goals disallowed earlier in the opening period. The first was taken away after a video review when officials determined Andrew Shaw kicked the puck into the net 6:24 into the game. Just more than 2½ minutes later, Vigneault challenged another Montreal score for goalie interference and officials determined Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty made contact with Lundqvist on the play.