Goalie Duel At The Garden

They had a hell of a goaltending duel at MSG last night where two Olympic bound goalies put on quite a show. In the end, the Rangers lucked out, to win the game 1-0. Don't believe it was luck? Lets look at it. Lunqvist made 38 saves for the shutout. Jimmy Howard, the Red Wing and USA goalie made 47 saves and was beaten on a goal by Mats Zuccarello that was actually a pass. Zuccarello was looking to pass the puck when it bounced off Red Wing D-man Brian Lashoff and oozed by Howard for the only goal of the game. It was the Rangers 45th shot and it came with a hair less than six minutes left in the game.

Want more? Niklas Kronwall almost tied the game with 44.5 seconds left in the game. The puck got under Lundqvist and he had to reach back and stop it on the goal line. Want more? The Red Wings had 8 regular players out for one reason or another and that group had totaled 139 points. That doesn't take away from the job Lundqvist did and what Howard did. Needless to say Lundqvist was number one star, Holland number two and Zuccarello, who now is tied for the team lead with 12 goals, was number three star.

Nash played a strong game with eight shots on goal and Dan Carcillo fell into the over coaching Vigneault's head game with a game low of 5:51 of ice time, registering one shot on seven shifts. The Red Wing's low man was Eaves Patrick. The forward got 11:15 of ice time and had three shots and five hits. The Red Wings out hit the Rangers 25-18 and easily could have won the game. However The King was strong, stood tall and it looks like he's back. If he is truly back, then NHL, watch out!

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