NHL

Stepan stepping up for Rangers

BOSTON — Derek Stepan became the first Rangers rookie to hit the 20-goal mark since Petr Prucha scored 30 in 2005-06 with his first-period goal in yesterday’s 1-0 victory over the Bruins, but it was the freshman’s work on faceoffs that was most impressive.

For Stepan, who got the goal at 6:39 of the first on a deflection of Michael Sauer’s right-point drive after winning a right circle faceoff with help from Vinny Prospal, finished 8-4 at the dots following a 2-11 night against the Senators on Thursday that left him at a league-worst 37.1 percent.

“The coaches kind of jammed me about it [on Friday],” Stepan said. “It’s just the mindset and not thinking about it too much.

“I was trying to scramble them before, but the coaches said just try to win them, which made me think less and made it easier.”

Stepan received help on the draw that led to the goal from Prospal, who clearly had jumped early. This chapped Boston coach Claude Julien even more than it might have because he believed the preceding play that created the faceoff, a Marian Gaborik shot that was held by goaltender Tuukka Rask, should have been called offside.

“It was a missed offside, but [officials] make mistakes, but then the guy jumps in, the guy who passed it to the point was obviously in and it should have been blown down,” he said. “There’s one mulligan [for the officials], but I didn’t feel they needed two.”

Stepan skated between Prospal and Gaborik, with whom he played the third period on Thursday, while Erik Christensen moved between Sean Avery and Wojtek Wolski.

He’s not only the first Blueshirts freshman in five seasons to score 20, he’s just the second since Michael York scored 26 in 1999-2000 and the third since Tony Amonte recorded 35 in 1991-92. Tony Granato has the club record with 36 in 1988-89.

“During the game I really didn’t think about it much,” said Stepan, who scored a total of 21 goals in 81 games over two seasons at Wisconsin. “But now it’s something I’m proud of, and there are six games left.”

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Henrik Lundqvist, who buys wine for his teammates after each shutout (perhaps from the inventory of the restaurant of which he is a part owner that opens soon), is now at a career-high and league-leading 11.

“That was my goal. I can’t believe I did it,” said The King, who had shutouts last season and in 2007-08. “I said the other night that there is no way I could be there by myself.

“There have been some shutouts I had to work really hard, but there have also been some shutouts where the team has been outstanding in front of me.

“The guys like getting more wine so I keep buying wine every week now. I don’t mind though.”

But the King aggravated the neck injury he first sustained a week ago Friday in the collision with Benoit Pouliot when Patrice Bergeron crashed into him with 2:56 to go in the second period following a nudge from Marc Staal.

“It was the exact same spot. It’s sore,” said Lundqvist, tended to on the ice by ubiquitous trainer Jim Ramsay. “It’s back to where it was a week ago.

“I guess I will have to keep turning my whole body instead of just my head.”

Lundqvist has surrendered three goals on 118 shots with two shutouts in four games (0.73 goals against average, .975 save percentage) since the initial injury. The King has a 1.67 goals against average with a .947 save percentage over his last 10 games including three shutouts, two one-goal games and two two-goal games.

“Hank has stepped up his play when we’ve needed him,” coach John Tortorella said. “He looks solid. He’s going to have to be if we want to continue to keep on going here.”

*** On several shifts through the game, Tortorella switched his top two defense pairs, breaking up the Marc StaalDan Girardi and Ryan McDonagh-Sauer tandems, teaming Staal with Sauer and Girardi with McDonagh.

“It was both [for matchups and for rest],” Tortorella said. “It was situational play within the game.”

Staal led with 28:35 while Girardi played 26:24, Sauer got 20:28 and McDonagh, 19:00. The Bryan McCabe-Steve Eminger pair did not get on the final 8:33.

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Rangers, who were shorthanded only once (Gaborik for a cheesy second-period boarding penalty), have played a man down only three times in the last three games.

“That’s a huge part of trying to find a way,” Tortorella said. “We have to be disciplined, especially the lousy penalties; the offensive-zone and retaliatory penalties.

“We felt we needed to re-identify ourselves today as far as being a stiff, hard team,” he said. “I thought we did that and we did that with discipline. It’s the way we’re going to have to play.”

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Mats Zuccarello, who was benched after the second period on Thursday for all but a 26-second overtime power-play shift, was scratched for the first time to make way for Sean Avery ‘s re-entry after four straight healthy scratches.

“It’s not an indictment of [Zuccarello],” Tortorella said. “We’re playing a big team and maybe Sean will give us some energy. We’ll see how it goes after this game, but I want to put Sean in.”

Avery played just 5:45 on nine shifts, but he fought Gregory Campbell 23 seconds into his first shift at 2:44 of the first period in a bout that must have been scheduled during the pregame warmup judging by the way it unfolded; was strong on the forecheck; and made a sliding block on a Johnny Boychuk right-point drive with 4:25 remaining in the match.

Matt Gilroy was scratched for the second straight game.

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The Blueshirts, who returned home following the match, are in Buffalo on Wednesday before facing the Islanders at the Coliseum on Thursday and the Flyers in Philadelphia a week from today to close out the road portion of the schedule.

They have three at the Garden the final week of the season against the Bruins, Thrashers and Devils.