OTTAWA, Ontario —It was ugly everywhere except where it mattered most, and despite the pockmarked performance from those in front of him, Henrik Lundqvist left the Canadian Tire Center on Tuesday night sitting atop Rangers history.
With a sloppy 8-4 victory over the Senators, Lundqvist got win No. 302, passing Mike Richter for the most in franchise history.
“It’s an incredible feeling, a proud feeling,” said Lundqvist, who made 35 saves, stopping all 16 he faced in the second period when the Rangers scored four goals, three in the final 4:12 of the period. “Being up there with those guys, you look at the names of those who played for this organization for a lot of years, and also the franchise has been around for so long, it’s kind of surreal when you think about it.
“But I want to keep gong on, obviously, and I hope I have a lot of years left to keep winning.”
That might not exactly be the case if the Rangers (37-29-4) keep playing the kind of defense they did in front of Lundqvist, allowing chance after chance both on the rush and with horrible coverage lapses in their own zone. Of course, that was partially because of the offensive outburst that staked the Rangers to a 5-2 lead in the second, allowing the Senators (28-27-13) to open things up and take silly risks.
“It wasn’t obviously a defensive masterpiece,” said coach Alain Vigneault, whose team set a season-high with eight goals, two apiece from Rick Nash and Derick Brassard. “But on the way we scored some goals, which we hadn’t done in a while, and hopefully that will carry on to the next few games.”
Ah yes, the next few games. As the Rangers chased Robin Lehner out of the Ottawa net — only to come back midway through the third period after backup Nathan Lawson got hurt — they were receiving some help from the Blue Jackets, who lost to the Hurricanes, 3-1. That allowed the Blueshirts to leapfrog them into third place in the Metropolitan Division, denied second place when the Flyers beat the Blackhawks 3-2 in overtime.
It sets up a huge game in — believe it — Columbus on Friday night, before the Rangers head back for a Saturday night game against the Devils in Newark.
“I don’t think it’s something that’s on your mind all the time or something you dwell on, but we know where we’re at in the standings,” alternate captain Marc Staal said. “We have to win some games, and if it could come down to the end of the season.”
Although the second period started with the Senators up 2-1 and the Blueshirts on the verge of a monumental letdown, the four-goal outburst allowed for a bit of breathing room. There was only the slightest bit of trepidation when Milan Michalek scored 1:27 into the third to cut the Rangers’ lead to 5-3.
“You could feel how much momentum they got scoring the third one, and the energy changed,” Lundqvist said. “But right when we scored that sixth goal, as funny as it sounds, it was an important goal.”
That was from Derek Stepan — what could have very well been called a kick-in, but after review the initial call of a good goal was upheld — who joined Benoit Pouliot, Ryan McDonagh and John Moore as the other single-goal scorers. And although Lundqvist called the third period “not really goalie-friendly” — and likely had some harsher words said in semi-jest to his teammates in the locker room after the game — the end result was seemingly all that mattered.
“I’m just happy it’s over,” Lundqvist said, “and we got the win.”