NHL

Lundqvist’s performance fit for a King keeps Rangers season alive

New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist deflects a shot last night against the Washington Capitals in Game 6. (AP)

One goal.

That’s all the King’s men got for Henrik Lundqvist and that’s all their goaltender needed.

One game.

That’s all that Lundqvist and the Rangers need in order to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals.

That would be tonight’s winner-take-all Game 7 against the Capitals in Washington the Blueshirts and their goaltender made necessary with their pulsating 1-0 victory at the Garden yesterday in the very kind of match the goaltender had on Saturday vowed to enjoy.

So how much fun was it, King?

“You say that, you want to enjoy it, but it’s intense, there’s a lot of pressure,” Lundqvist said, flashing a smile after earning his seventh playoff shutout with a 27-save performance that ended with thunderous chants of “Henrik…Henrik” reverberating off the canyon of the round building on Broadway.

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“There are moments during the game where you pinch yourself because you want to remember to enjoy it, but then you wonder what you’re doing when you’re in this position.”

The Rangers are going back to the rink in which they have scored all of two goals in going 0-3 in this series. But it is the same rink where Lundqvist has allowed one goal in regulation over the last two games, 1-0 and 2-1 OT defeats, respectively.

They are going to D.C. attempting to become the first Rangers team in franchise history to win a Game 7 on the road. Never have they been better served in trying — not with Ed Giacomin in nets for Game 7 in Chicago in 1971 semis or with Eddie-Eddie going into Philadelphia in the semis three years later for the Game 7 that devolved into the Dave Schultz-Dale Rolfe debacle — than with Lundqvist as the last line of defense.

“The ultimate goal for Hank, in his mind, is to go win the Stanley Cup,” coach John Tortorella said. “But you need to go through these types of situations to get there.”

The Rangers need tonight’s match not only to advance and keep their quest for championship alive, they need to win this series in order to have a chance to redeem this season. Getting to Game 7 of the first round will mean nothing if there isn’t a Game 1 of the next round.

These aren’t the Islanders who rightfully can take solace in first-round moral victories. These are the Rangers, who came within two victories of the Cup Final last year and expected more than that of themselves this time around.

They threw it all out there, the Blueshirts did. They dived to block shots, including a pair in the final, frantic minute by Ryan Callahan and Brian Boyle when the Caps pressed with the extra attacker. They sacrificed their bodies to make and prevent plays. Blue-collar stuff, from start to finish.

They left nothing in the room; left nothing to chance. Whatever they left, Lundqvist cleaned it up.

“We didn’t want to have to bank on Hanky as much as we did,” said Ryan McDonagh. “But I know he takes pride in putting up that zero against them.”

Zero again is what Alexander Ovechkin produced in playing most of the match against the McDonagh-Dan Girardi pair on defense and the Derek Stepan-Callahan-Carl Hagelin unit up front.

In New York, the focus has been on Rick Nash’s failure to score. But Ovechkin, who led the NHL in goal-scoring during the season and finished on a binge, has only one goal in this series and has been blanked in the last five games since getting a powerplay goal in the second period of Game 1.

Ovechkin had five shots on 12 attempts yesterday. His best chances came on a left wing dash to the net with 4:50 to go in the second — about six minutes after Derick (A Star is Born) Brassard had given the Rangers the lead — and on a wrist shot from the left 1:30 into the third.

“I don’t have to look for [Ovechkin] because I know he’s going to show up sooner or later,” Lundqvist said. “He always does.”

Tonight, Game 7, Lundqvist will show up.

He always does, too.