DALLAS — There was joy and music and laughter in the visitor’s dressing room, a palpable sense that what had just happened on the ice at the American Airlines Center was important, and that through the herculean efforts of Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers had finally, mercifully, crested a hill.
The 3-2 win over the Stars on Thursday night was many things, but above all it was a much-needed victory for a Rangers team that for long stretches looked like they were going to start this five-game road trip with more woebegone fatalism.
Instead, what they got was Lundqvist, in all his glory, making save after save, a career-high 23 in the first period alone, 41 total, and even added an assist on a long pass that set up Rick Nash’s first period goal. And Lundqvist, from underneath the Broadway Hat, with a large high-definition camera from his native Sweden following his every move, sitting, smiling, and conceding that this is exactly what his team needed.
“We came out in the third and we made up our mind — we need this game,” Lundqvist said. “It was a great feeling.”
Somehow, the Rangers (11-11-0) started that third period tied 1-1, a testament to Lundqvist’s play. By then, the Stars (11-8-2) had 36 shots on goal, an astounding 67 shots attempted, and just one of them had hit the back of the net, a long power-play slap shot from Stephane Robidas that had to deflect off the skate of Ryan McDonagh to sneak past.
“He was the best player on the ice tonight and he won us the game,” Marc Staal told The Post. “He made a lot of game-changing saves. He was big when we needed him.”
The Rangers pushed back in the second, but still only had Nash’s first-period power-play tally to show for it. Then when the third opened, it was Chris Kreider scoring 1:18 in on a snap shot that found its way through a screen — not without changing directions once or twice — followed just 37 seconds later when defenseman John Moore’s long wrist shot beat Kari Lehtonen over the glove, giving the Rangers a 3-1 lead.
“What a weird sport,” said Kreider, who had played an outstanding game in Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to the Bruins, a game that was the Rangers third loss in the past four contests and one in which he was kept off the score sheet. “Sometimes you have grade-A chances, in tight, and it’s when you shoot through a screen and ends up tipping off a guy’s stick is when it goes in. I’m not complaining.”
One thing that has seemingly followed the Rangers around so far through the first quarter of this season is a feeling they have been on the wrong side of karma, a feeling that temporarily reemerged when Alex Chiasson scored midway through the third to cut the lead to 3-2. But the Rangers shut down from there, and allowed Lundqvist to walk out with a much-deserved win.
“Sometimes you need a little bit of puck luck,” said coach Alain Vigneault, whose team had scored just four goals in the past four games, and in the past three failed to get a single one 5-on-5. “Hopefully that’s the start of something real positive for us.”
The most positive is that come Saturday in Nashville, Vigneault knows his team has taken a large step forward — and one they were pushed on by their indelible goaltender.
“I think you can gain a lot of confidence from a win like this,” Lundqvist said, “when you know you can trust your system even though you’re not perfect.”
For trust, the team needs to look no further than Lundqvist.