Lundqvist Saves Rangers, Again

Last year it was the dynamic duo of Jagr and Lundqvist that carried the Rangers until the dramatic slump. This year it looks like Shanahan and Lundqvist, at least until Jagr regains the strength he needs in his injured shoulder. There were a lot of good things that happened to the Rangers last night. The rookie Nigel Dawes scored his first goal of the year. Renney shuffled the lines and they all played spirited. Brendan Shanahan scored another goal, his eight, and scored the only goal in the shootout to give the Rangers the win. And Marek Malik was benched, though for the wrong reason.

Despite not scoring any goals, Jagr did rack up two assists and registered five shots on goal. Air Canada Centre officials gave the Rangers star number one, Nylander, and star number three, Brendan Shanahan. They were wrong, Star number one was Henrik Lundqvist. Yes he was quite ordinary in the first two periods, 17 saves on twenty shots. However when the chips were down and the game was on the line, Henrik Lundqvist was The Prince.

In the third period the Rangers deserted Lundqvist. They also decided not to go on the offense. The Leafs outshot the Rangers 16-4 in the third period and 2-0 in OT. The shootout was all Lundqvist again as he stopped Mats Sundin, Alexei Ponikarovsky and Darcy Tucker, who notched his 6th and 7th goals of the season earlier. Brendon Shanahan scored the game winner after failures by Jagr and Nylander. Nylander's,line with his two new linemates, Nigel Dawes and Jason Ward, racked up five points. However it was Nylanders giveaway that led to Jeff O'Neill's tying goal with three minutes to go in the game. Speaking of giveaways Michal Rozsival racked up a game high of four. Thank goodness the dentist removed Malik from the game.

Lundqvist was the main man though. He is now stopped 16 of 16 shots in shootouts. There are only three other goalies who have not have goals scored against them but none of them have more than three shots against them. Overall he stopped 34 of 38 shots. He doesn't seem to be there yet but he was impressive in the 3rd period, OT and the shootout.

ICINGS: The win was Lundqvist's first in Toronto. Jagr got nailed a couple of times and naturally no one responded. Will it take an injury before someone retaliates? Marty McSorley. where are you when we need you?

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