THANKS, HANK: Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist kicks aside a shot in yesterday’s 3-2 victory over the Capitals at the Garden that cut Washington’s lead to 2-1 in their opening-round playoff series. Game 4 is Wednesday at the Garden. (Neil Miller)
The puck was in net, the Capitals had tied the score late in the third period for the second time in three games, and Henrik Lundqvist had one thought and one thought only as he looked up at the scoreboard above center ice at the Garden and saw 5:12 remaining on the clock.
“I thought, ‘OK, let’s get to overtime,’ ” The King said. “That was my focus.”
But yesterday’s Game 3 didn’t get to overtime. It didn’t get there because Brandon Dubinsky made a huge play with 1:39 to go to lift the Rangers to the 3-2 victory that brought his team to within 2-1 in this first-round series after Lundqvist had all but carried the team to the postseason.
“I feel a lot of pride to be here, to be in the playoffs,” Lundqvist said. “I took it personally last year when we didn’t make it.”
It’s bizarre: After the first two games ended 2-1 (in overtime) and 2-0 for the Caps, the theory was advanced that maybe there wasn’t such a difference after all between The King and Washington’s rookie netminder Michal Neuvirth.
As if.
As if facing a scoring chance from Alex Ovechkin is the same as one from, oh, Ruslan Fedotenko. Or facing a one-timer from Alexander Semin is the same as facing a one-timer from, say, Wojtek Wolski.
As if Lundqvist would ever stiff the press following a defeat — any time, regular season or playoffs — the way Neuvirth did yesterday.
Lundqvist has started 29 straight games now for the Rangers. He will have all summer to rest. The Rangers need big plays at big moments from big players, like the one from Dubinsky — but their goaltender is their rock, their anchor, their foundation.
Their edge.
“Hank was great for us, like he always is,” said Vinny Prospal, who scored on a rebound in the third to give the Rangers the 2-1 lead that Mike Knuble’s score negated. “But we can’t expect him to do it by himself. We have to give him some support, too.”
Lundqvist is 29, finishing his sixth NHL season already. It seems like only yesterday that Jaromir Jagr looked to his right at training camp in 2005, saw the rookie out of Sweden who was supposed to be a backup in his first North American season that first year after the lockout, and announced, “We have a world-class goalie here.”
It was that obvious, and that soon, that royalty was in the midst. But over six seasons, Lundqvist has matured as a teammate and a leader. It does not seem all that long ago either that Brendan Shanahan took the netminder aside to advise him not to even think of pointing fingers (or pouting) after losing a shutout late in the game.
But it was.
Lundqvist has battled this year. He has been a leader without ever pointing a finger, without ever questioning the game plan, without ever suggesting that he somehow was apart from the team. He has competed, playing and winning in Pittsburgh on a Sunday afternoon in March less than 48 hours after sustaining a sprained neck in a goalmouth collision with Montreal’s Benoit Pouliot on a Friday night at the Garden.
Black-and-Blueshirt goaltender for a Black-and-Blueshirt team.
This is the King staying in the moment. This is the King understanding his responsibility.
“I try not to get involved with how we’re playing, because when I start thinking about things that are out of my control, I start to make bad decisions,” Lundqvist said. “I just focus on stopping the puck. That’s my job.”
Lundqvist entered yesterday’s match having lost five straight playoff matches dating back to Game 5 of the 2009 first-round series against the Capitals. Before yesterday, he had a career 14-18 record in the playoffs.
Someone — well, it was me — asked him if he felt those numbers were a burden for him.
“Actually, I had no idea of those records,” Lundqvist said. “But thank you for telling me.”