The Ranger Captain - on his 27th birthday - came through with the Over Time game winner on Wednesday night - breaking the tie against Ty Conklin - the Detroit fill-in goaltender - to snatch the Rangers a 2-1 victory.
The game started badly for New York. As my Blueshirt Brother Jack texted:
"Early goal gives Detroit 1-0 lead. It was a soft goal allowed by Lundqvist. But Rangers are finding their legs now as the first period continues."
But Lundqvist settled down nicely after the one bad goal. And then the tide turned.
As Jack said:
"Bad line change by Detroit results in first powerplay of the game . Bench minor at 14:30."
The Rangers first goal came in Brad Richards finest moment as a New York Ranger. Henrik Lundqvist got an unlikely powerplay assist - by leaving the puck for Richards BEHIND HIS OWN GOAL in the 15th minute of period 1.
Richards did the rest. Top line centers are supposed to be able to bull the puck up ice themselves - and Brad did exactly that - from behind his own net - out of the Ranger zone, across the red line - past the Red Wing blue line - and - splitting the defense - he bore down on Conklin and tied the game at 1 all.
Or as Jack put it:
"Goooaaalll! richards at 14:58 beautiful coast to coast - from Lundqvist. skated entire length of ice uncontested!"
The Rangers lost the faceoff battle by an amazing 37-17 (it was 32-10 at one point). We out hit the Wings 16-14 and outshot them 34-27 - our usual.
So it came down to goaltenders, Conklin saved .941, a great day for a guy just back in the big leagues. But Hank was better at .963. He seems to have shaken off the effects of the flu - good news for our stretch drive. Assists for Del Zotto and the surging Dublinsky (and Hank!). The Rangers gave up just one powerplay - which they killed off - and were 1 for 3 on their own man advantage tries.
A good night for the Blueshirts. Back on track and still ahead of the Pens.
At least for one more day....
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
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