Danger was knocking on the Rangers’ door for nearly the entire final 20 minutes of Game 7, but Henrik Lundqvist simply refused to open it no matter how insistent the Flyers became.
Two-nothing for New York after two periods had become 2-1 only 4:32 into the third Wednesday night. The King knew what was coming.
“When they scored that goal, I knew it was going to be intense,” an emotionally drained Lundqvist said. “It was nerve-wracking, but exciting.
“I looked at this as very special.”
The Flyers sent nine shots Lundqvist’s way in the final 15-plus minutes, with big bodies converging in front. None got by the goaltender, who made perhaps his most challenging save against Michael Raffl alone in front at the 10-minute mark of the period.
“I wouldn’t say I thought we were in control, because all it takes is one bounce, the game is so fast,” Lundqvist said after the 2-1 victory that sent the Rangers into Round Two against the Penguins that begins in Pittsburgh on Friday. “I didn’t feel relaxed, but I did feel confident.
“We believe in each other. A large part of having success is trust.”
The Rangers trust Lundqvist. That’s as much a part of the team’s mantra as whistle-to-whistle.
“We needed Henrik to do some things when we had the lead and were scrambling around there trying to protect it,” Brad Richards said. “You’ve got to figure he’s going to make a big save or two.
“You could tell that he was on and that’s what you need to close out a series.”
Lundqvist has closed out four series over the last three years, every one coming with a standout Game 7 performance. There was 2-1 over Ottawa at the Garden in Round One in 2012, 2-1 over Washington at the Garden in Round Two in 2012, 5-0 over the Caps in Washington in Round One last year, and now 2-1 at the Garden over Philadelphia.
If you’re scoring at home, you’re not only doing better than the opposition against Lundqvist in Game 7s, you’ve calculated Lundqvist’s GAA is 0.75 over those four showdown matches. The save percentage is .973.
Yet Lundqvist said he did not derive positive reinforcement from the past as he prepared for this Game 7. Perhaps that had something to do with the fact that he’d been yanked 24 hours earlier after allowing four goals on 23 shots in 40 minutes of the Blueshirts’ 5-2 Game 6 defeat in Philadelphia.
“It was different last year when I was coming off a [1-0] shutout in Game 6 and feeling really good about myself,” the goaltender said. “Coming into this, I was more mad than anything that we didn’t get the win [in Game 6].
“I knew I had to match [Steve] Mason’s play. He kept them in the game in the second period. In a perfect world, it would have been [more than 2-0].”
The Rangers still haven’t played their best game, not even close to it, but this Game 7 victory reflected the poise, discipline and resourcefulness that have come to define the Rangers. There was a heightened sense of urgency, of that there was no doubt from the outset when Rick Nash started throwing his body around.
Nash did not score, and will thus go into the Pittsburgh series without a goal in these playoffs and with one in 19 playoff games as a Ranger. But Big 61 was involved on essentially every even-strength shift for which he was on.
The winger, who was credited with 11 hits in 65 games during the regular season and two in the first six matches of this series, had five hits in 17:44 in Game 7, including three in the first period. Nash dived to get his stick on a Kimmo Timonen shot with 4:35 to go.
Nothing went in, but Nash was all in.
“In Game 7 you have to bring your best,” he said. “We won and that’s all that matters.”
Mike Richter didn’t have the career in New York that Eddie Giacomin did, but Richter won a Cup, so even as Eddie … Eddie … Eddie will always be the People’s Choice, Richter will always be revered for his part in 1994. Mark Messier may have guaranteed it, but it was Richter who signed, sealed and delivered it.
And no matter how many franchise records Lundqvist sets, his résumé will be incomplete without a Stanley Cup championship. For now, though, he is the champion of Game 7. That’s not nothing.
“It’s inspiring to play a game like this; you have to enjoy it,” Lundqvist said. “You play so many games … if you can’t enjoy a game like this, you need to think again.
“The final seconds, with that adrenaline, I get the kind of rush that I don’t get with anything else that I do in life.”
Twelve more wins and Lundqvist will experience the best rush yet.