It would not have been difficult to see Henrik Lundqvist stealing another one, not by any stretch of the imagination.
But a bridge with one pillar can only support so much weight, and with little support for the Lundqvist, the Rangers fell last night to the Bruins, 2-1, in Game 3 of this Eastern Conference semifinal at the Garden. The loss places the Rangers in a debilitating 3-0 hole in the best-of-7 series, one that looks glum as it moves to what could be a season-ending Game 4 back at the Garden tomorrow night.
The game-winner even had the indecency to bounce off Lundqvist’s mask, a deflected shot that landed behind him and then was slapped in by Daniel Paille with just 3:31 remaining in the third period.
The Rangers nursed a 1-0 lead into the third, but with just over three minutes gone, Lundqvist went to play the puck behind his net and turned it over to Gregory Campbell. The puck stayed in Rangers’ zone, and eventually came out to Johnny Boychuk, who lifted one through a massive amount of traffic and over Lundqvit’s left shoulder to tie it, 1-1.
The Rangers had gotten on the board early in the second period, when some hard work and a rare mistake by Patrice Bergeron lead to Taylor Pyatt’s second goal the playoffs. With the puck deep in the Bruins’ corner, Bergeron failed to clear the puck and it came to Ryan McDonagh, who fired a 45-foot wrist shot through Pyatt’s legs and passed Tuukka Rask to go up 1-0. Originally credited to McDonagh, the goal was later changed to Pyatt’s.
That was followed up by a flurry of about 10 minutes when the Rangers couldn’t get the puck out of their own zone. The Bruins fired shot after shot on Lundqvist, and he stood tall on each one, the most impressive when he reached behind his left side with his glove to snag a Campbell slap shot destined for inside the far pipe.
And it was from the opening 20 minutes when this seemed like a game Lundqvist just wasn’t going to allow his team to lose. The first indication came with just over 11 minutes remaining in the first period, when during a 4-on-4 Chris Kelly came in on a breakaway and Lundqvist shut the door on his backhand attempt.
Less than three minutes later, Tyler Seguin got a similar attempt when Rangers defenseman Anton Stralman misplayed the puck at the blue line. Seguin was second on the Bruins this regular season with 16 goals, but when he went to his backhand, Lundqvist again got his pad in the way and kept the period scoreless. It was the third time in as many games that the first period ended without a goal for either team.
It was slightly surprising that with such good looks, the Bruins didn’t try to test Lundqvist on the high-glove side. If there is a weakness in the reigning Vezina Trophy winner and finalist again this season, that’s it. And considering he suffered a minor left-shoulder injury in Game 2, that would have been a logical pregame strategy.
Lundqvist came into this series having shut out the Capitals in Games 6 and 7 to lift his team to a first-round victory. This time, he might not get a chance to get that far.
bcyrgalis@nypost.com