Carolina- Last night on the second half of back to back games the Rangers stole one from the Hurricanes with a 4-1 win. Let me rephrase that; Henrik Lundqvist stole the win and two huge points on the road for the Rangers. Facing a season, and NHL high 48 shots, Hank played like the Vezina Trophy winner from last year.
Much like games past, Henrik did more than his share to keep the team in it. Only the offense responded with a much more glaring difference this time around. The team finally produced the goals that are needed in order to not let such a awe-inspiring performance by their goaltender go to waste. We've seen it done by Lundqvist before, but last night was something really special that us Rangers fans tend to take for granted.
"The King" put the team on his shoulders, and willed the Rangers to a victory. As John Tortorella came out and said in his post-game comments, "Last night was the best he has ever seen Henrik play". With all the masterful games we've seen from him, that comment by the coach illustrates just how good he actually was.
Outside of Henrik, the team looked and played like they were on the latter end of back to back games. They were extremely sloppy in their defensive zone, but managed to capitalize on their offensive opportunities. Stepan and Callahan both cashed in on goals just 31 seconds apart from eachother at the start of the second period. Rick Nash also scored a huge goal with about 9 minutes left in the third. Brian Boyle put the icing on the cake and scored the empty net goal making it final, 4-1 Rangers.
This was a gutsy win for the New York Rangers. This type of grit and willingness to get points in both games of a back to back series is what they have been missing all year long. It is pretty safe to say that since the trade deadline, this team has begun to turn the corner, and are trending in the right direction. It is almost as though they have flipped a switch that has ignited the entire roster. If they continue this type of play they are going to be a very dangerous team from here on out.
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