COOL HAND ZUC
Rangers ride Mats, Lundqvist genius into 2nd round
It was a regular season that started with uncertainty and a postseason that started with the same.
But this is proving to be a new version of an old story, the Rangers maybe not looking like the most formidable opponent in the playoffs,
but some- how finding ways to win — and win big.
Once again, the brilliance of Henrik Lundqvist secured another postseason series victory, a 3-1 win over the Canadiens in Game 6 Saturday night at the Garden that wrapped up their opening-round contest with a bang.
With two goals from Mats Zuccarello, the Rangers now advance to face the win
ner of the Senators-Bruins series, with Ottawa holding a 3-2 series edge and Game 6 Sunday afternoon in Boston.
“It means a lot,” said Lundqvist, who outplayed his counterpart, Carey Price, not just on this night but throughout the whole series. “That excitement when the puck goes in, you’re moving on. It’s been pretty intense the last few days, but it’s all worth it.”
This was the next step in a long line of success in closeout games for Lundqvist and the Blueshirts at the Garden, now having won eight of the past 10 tries to
win a se- ries in front of their fans going back to 2007. One of those also was a Game 6 against the Canadiens, the 2014 Eastern Conference final that ended in the same dramatic fashion, Lundqvist holding his arms high in the air and the 18,006 inside finally remembering how to make this building rock.
Maybe it takes the coming warm weather to awaken those Garden faithful, but this is how the Rangers do it — by winning. So about that six-game postseason home losing streak that continued with an awful performance in Game 3 of this series? With two straight wins here, seems like a long time ago now, doesn’t it? “It’s no secret that we haven’t been having the greatest year at home,” said veteran defenseman Dan Gi
rardi, whose
team also came in with the worst home record of any playoff qualifier. “It started with the great crowd for the anthem and even in warmup they were buzzing. We tried to feed off of it as best we could.”
There is confidence now, but it looked a little different after the Rangers went down 1-0 at 6:19 of the first period, when they allowed Alexei Emelin to walk in and beat Lundqvist’s glove up high. But it was the previously 0-for-14 power play that got them back in it, when Zuccarello took a pass at his feet and was able to beat Price nearside, a goal that the newly named Vezina Trophy finalist surely would want back.
“It’s lucky — it’s not every day you beat Carey Price like that,” Zuccarello said. “It’s a nice power-play goal About time. That was big for us.”