Larry Brooks

Larry Brooks

Lundqvist exorcises his Montreal demons

MONTREAL — It might as well have been Gothenburg or the Garden.

Because for once and for all — or at least until Game 2 on Monday night — Henrik Lundqvist made himself at home here and shoved all of the ghosts of his inglorious past in the Canadiens’ building into thin air.

“Ancient history,” as Brian Boyle would put it after the Rangers’ 7-2 rout of the Habs on Saturday in Game 1 of the Eastern finals.

So many storylines here for the Blueshirts, who are hitting their stride at exactly the right moment, winners of four straight by an aggregate 17-5 score.

We’ve got Martin St. Louis opening the scoring at 4:35 of the first period on the day between the wake for his mother, which was held nearby Friday night, and the funeral services, which will take place in Laval, Quebec, on Sunday.

We’ve got the Rangers’ Dom, as in Moore, stepping into the breach when Derick Brassard went down just over three minutes into the match after absorbing a huge open ice hit from Mike Weaver to set up each of the Blueshirts’ first two goals within the opening 6:27 with brilliant passes.

We’ve got Chris Kreider burning the Canadiens wide with his speed — Alexei Emelin and P.K. Subban might or might not have gotten the license plate on that diesel as it sped by them — over and over again, and scoring the game-breaking 3-1 goal on a dash to the net.

We’ve got Rick Nash getting his first goal of the playoffs; we’ve got Carey Price driven from the game after two periods; we’ve got the Rangers scoring three power-play goals; we’ve got the Blueshirts recording as many goals through 40 minutes as they had scored in their previous eight games here.

And we’ve got Lundqvist securing this game with a handful of splendid saves late in the second period after the Canadiens had come within 2-1 and had seized the momentum for the first time and what would be the only time in the match.

It always comes back to Lundqvist for the Rangers, even if the last coach, John Tortorella, essentially stopped playing him in Montreal after a series of disastrous games and his successor, Alain Vigneault, followed suit this season, going twice with Cam Talbot.

You can be sure that the proud goaltender didn’t appreciate it or the notion that his royal robes were nothing but rags in the province of Quebec, that he was just another serf waiting to be served up to the Montreal lords and masters.

Oh, boy, though, were the numbers and games ugly. This week, after dispatching the Penguins in seven with three consecutive victories in which he allowed one goal apiece, No. 30 could have angrily confronted inquisitors who, yes, indeed, were in front of the King’s locker to talk about the past.

Lundqvist snatches a puck off the back of P.K. Subban. He let up only two goals behind the seven the Rangers’ offense produced.AP

Instead, Lundqvist disarmed everyone with humor just as he disarmed the Penguins, then on Saturday disarmed the Canadiens.
“It’s been so long since I played there, I can’t really remember,” he said on Thursday.

It had been since Jan. 15, 2012, his only start here the last three seasons, and it had been since March 17, 2009, since he had won a game in Montreal.

Give the King truth serum and he will tell no lie. He remembers. Of course he does.

“You guys like to talk about it, you like to ask me about it,” Lundqvist said after the 20-save victory. “I haven’t played here in a while, but it’s still the same game.

“Last time I played here we had a different team and I think I’ve grown as a goalie, as well. But every time you play the game, you have to show yourself and your teammates that you can play.”

Lundqvist has emerged as a team leader over the last three years — more vocal, more insistent. If he needed to show anyone in the world he could play, he provided a demonstration late in the second period with a pair of saves on Max Pacioretty wrist shots and one on Subban from in front while it was still 2-0, and then a glove save on Brandon Prust’s left circle drive with 1:18 to go in the period and Montreal within 2-1 after briefly gaining control.

He quieted the frenzy in the building. The Blueshirts silenced it by scoring twice before the period ended.

“That was the key stretch right there,” Moore said. “They’d gotten the momentum. They couldn’t keep it.”

This was one game; only one game. The Canadiens will be better on Monday. But Lundqvist’s zone has turned into a comfort zone. For like Gothenburg and Manhattan, Montreal is fit for a King.