ST. LOUIS — The Rangers are a remarkable 10-1 in back-to-backs this season, but the conquests on consecutive nights are not the only win-wins they enjoy. It’s Henrik Lundqvist’s back that coach John Tortorella says he and Marty Biron are protecting.
“I told you guys we’re going to stay with this,” Tortorella said. “It’s not going to be Hank every night.
“We have five back-to-backs and 14 games this month. In the long run it’ll be good for our No. 1 goaltender.
“Backups are not only to spell your No. 1 guy. He has to win games, too. That’s what keeps you in the race and Marty has certainly done that for us.”
To stay in a race the Rangers — only four points out of the Eastern Conference lead — show increasing signs of joining, their goalies have to keep them in games. In the 2-1 victory over the Blues last night that completed a sweep of their Dallas-St. Louis weekend, Biron, who had just surrendered the game-opening goal on a nifty backhand tip by Brad Winchester, defined the art of the momentum swing in the second period with a glove save on B.J. Crombeen’s breakaway caused by Ruslan Fedotenko’s falling down at the point on a power play.
“He [Crombeen] may have seen high glove, but I got it,” Biron said. “It’s one of those saves where as a goalie, you feel really good about the way the game is going to go.
“At 1-0, it could have been a big change of momentum. Now you feel like we’re going to get going, and that’s what happened.”
Mats Zuccarello, fed beautifully by Brandon Dubinsky, in turn beautifully fed Derek Stepan, who faked to the backhand and beat Jarsolav Halak between the legs to tie the game. But before Sean Avery, scoring for the first time since Oct. 27, slammed across a Dubinsky shot that banged down off the crossbar for what turned out to be the winning goal, Biron did more big-time second period work to keep the game tied.
He had harassing help from Marc Staal on David Backes’ semi-breakaway off a Marian Gaborik giveaway, but none kicking away Backes’ point-blank try off a passout before cutting down the angle on Alex Steen as the sequence closed.
As it turned out, Biron’s work practically was done by then. In the third period, the Rangers put on a road clinic, particularly when Avery’s high stick during a corner collision cut Alex Pietrangelo. With Tortorella rotating three pairs of killers, the Blues, 0-for-6 with the man advantage for the night, got exactly one chance on the four-minute opportunity, a drive by Pietrangelo through traffic that Biron kicked out.
With Halak just pulled, Backes’ cross-check of Dan Girardi drew a penalty, and the goalie never got off the ice again. The Rangers went to 8-2-2 in their last 12 and Biron had not only his seventh win of the season, not only his first ever win over the Blues, but the first between he and Lundqvist, who together had failed to beat St. Louis nine times.
Some things are hard to explain. Last night’s win, in which the Rangers lost Alex Frolov to a leg injury when he was fallen upon by Winchester in the third period, was not one of them, however. The Rangers got the big save, responded with well-timed goals, and protected the lead confidently.
“We weren’t spot-on,” Tortorella said. “Our team is tired and a little beat up, we got in late. But in a physical and emotional game, we grinded.”