THE KING GETS DETHRONED: Henrik Lundqvist and Mats Zuccarello react after the Bruins’ game-winning goal in overtime of Game 1 last night in Boston. The Rangers’ defeat marked Lundqvist’s 11th postseason overtime loss in 14 games. (Paul J. Bereswill)
BOSTON — Henrik Lundqvist, the face of the Rangers and the face behind the mask, did not even attempt to mask the bitter pain of yet another overtime defeat.
This one cut to the core of the goaltender, who blamed himself, and who might have blamed anyone in sight, for the 3-2 loss to the Bruins in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semfinals last night that left him oh-for-three in OTs this year and with a career OT playoff record of 3-11.
“I think I made a bad, bad decision,” Lundqvist said, castigating himself for the two-on-one goal that Brad Marchand scored off a Patrice Bergeron right-wing rush feed at 15:40. “It was a tough play, but I could have played it better.
“I have to see the guy [Marchand] in the middle. I knew he was coming, but I was too focused and too locked in on the puck. That’s why I made a stretch move instead of being able to keep my pads together.”
OK, that was the technical explanation of the winning/losing play that began when Derick Brassard’s attempted cross-ice feed to Rick Nash on a right-wing rush was tipped by Zdeno Chara, thus allowing Boston to sweep down ice the other way.
But The King’s locker room postmortem wasn’t nearly as much about technical stuff as it was about raw emotion; about deep regret over the Rangers letting yet another one get away in OT.
“We came up short in overtime again,” Lundqvist said, the accent on the final word of the sentence, thus prompting the natural follow-up of whether the losses were having a cumulative effect on his psyche.
“I have to be really careful the way I answer that,” he said, before asking and answering a series of questions himself, as if he were the Fielding Mellish character in Woody Allen’s great old movie, “Bananas,” but without the comedic effect.
“Do I think I play bad in overtime? No. Can I score? No. Is it frustrating? Yes.”
For two periods, last night’s match came as advertised: close checking. Scoring chances were about as few and far between as Brad Richards’ even-strength shifts. But then the third opened wide, as if out of a fantasy game between the ’70s Canadiens and ’80s Oilers, with the clubs racing up and down the ice in a high-risk exchange of rushes.
Then came overtime, in which the Rangers were the only team at risk, absorbing blows for essentially the entire 15:40, banking on Lundqvist, banking on getting a break; banking on something or other that never materialized, and why on earth would it have?
Derek Dorsett took a needless interference penalty at 2:20. Before the game Dorsett told The Post, “It doesn’t matter what team you’re playing against, you have to make sure you find out what that line is and play on that line,” when asked about the Bruins’ ability to agitate.
Dorsett crossed that line obstructing Rich Peverley on a breakout and the Rangers never were able to break free and cross back over to the other — competitive — side. The B’s fired six shots during the power play, pressing throughout, thus establishing dominance that produced a 12-2 advantage in shots over the first 11:30 of OT and 16-5 overall.
“We never regrouped,” John Tortorella said when asked the impact of the B’s early power play. “We were spanked in the OT.”
The Rangers never even grouped on their own three power plays during the match, one as feeble as the next. The club generated a total of three shots on their advantages that amounted to self-inflicted wounds while falling to an embarrassing 2-for-31 on the PP for the playoffs.
This wasn’t the best of games overall for the Blueshirts, who failed to press the advantage they should have owned when injuries forced the Bruins were forced to play three rookies on defense. The Rangers never established a forecheck.
They never established anything, other than the fact that when the score is tied and the clock strikes 60 in the playoffs, it tolls for Thee King.