It was a quiet and tepid Sunday afternoon in midtown Manhattan when Henrik Lundqvist took one more step into the Rangers’ record books.
With a 3-0 win over the Red Wings at the Garden, Lundqvist recorded his 300th career regular-season win, becoming just the 29th goalie in league history to reach that milestone. He can now look ahead to Tuesday’s game in Carolina against the Hurricanes — or to the next two games of the three-game trip, in Minnesota on Thursday and Winnipeg on Friday — to tie Mike Richter’s franchise record of 301 victories.
By making 30 saves, Lundqvist also recorded his fourth shutout of the season — his first since a 1-0 win over the Red Wings on Jan. 16 at the Garden — and the 49th of his career, tying Eddie Giacomin for the franchise lead.
“It’s a great feeling to be up there with those guys,” Lundqvist said. “This organization has been around for so long, so to be up there with them, it’s very special and I’m proud just thinking about it.”
Surely the most important thing for Lundqvist was that his Rangers won, surpassing the idle Flyers for second place in the Metropolitan Division. Now at 35-26-4, the Blueshirts will take to this trip with a good feeling, all the while knowing no playoff spot is locked up with the final 17 games of the season still to be played.
“Whatever it takes right now to prepare for each game, like in the playoffs,” said Lundqvist, who has seemingly brushed off the malaise that followed him and his teammates home from Sochi, Russia, starting the post-Olympic schedule by going 0-2-1, followed now by consecutive regulation wins. “That’s the way it feels right now. We approach every game like a must-win.”
Lundqvist’s career began when the Rangers selected him in the seventh round of the 2000 draft, and by 2006, he had settled into the starter’s role. In the time since, he has become the face of this franchise, and seemingly will be at least through the duration of his newly inked seven-year, $59.5 million deal which begins next season.
“Obviously he’s the backbone, there’s no doubt — he’s been that for a while here,” the newest Ranger, Martin St. Louis, said. “To be on that side of the fence with him, it’s been a lot of fun.”
Although the Red Wings (29-22-13) are still hanging on to the final wild-card playoff spot, they came out slow and sloppy, with coach Mike Babcock saying afterward it was their worst game of the calendar, adding, “As a coaching staff, [we] didn’t have them prepared.”
The Rangers went up 1-0 in the first on a Brian Boyle turnaround shot, and then after a scoreless second period, when the Blueshirts held the puck for the whole of the final three minutes and had a handful of good scoring chances, they came out for the third and blew the Detroit’s doors off.
Chris Kreider tipped in a Ryan McDonagh point shot just 14 seconds into the period, making it 2-0, and then Kreider added another with just under eight minutes remaining when he converted a Derek Stepan pass on a well-executed 2-on-1. After scoring four third-period goals in the 4-2 win over the Hurricanes in Carolina on Friday, it seems the Rangers are starting to find some traction.
“That win on Friday was kind of a gut-check, a hard-earned, greasy road win,” said Kreider, who now has 16 goals but came in having scored just once in the previous 12 games and twice in the previous 17. “I think we’re playing good hockey.”
It also helps when a guy such as Lundqvist is in net. After the game, defenseman Dan Girardi retrieved the puck to give to his netminder, just a keepsake on a memorable day.
“I keep all the shutout pucks,” Lundqvist said. “Probably after my career, I’ll do something with them. Hopefully, I can keep collecting a few more.”