Henrik Lundqvist's Excellence Propels New York Rangers Past New Jersey Devils

It is pretty clear why Henrik Lundqvist’s nickname is “The King” after tonight, as he played out of his mind, leading the Rangers to a 3-1 victory over the New Jersey Devils at Madison Square Garden.

It was a rivalry game that had much hype heading in, and even more hype heading out. The past two games against the Devils have been the two most exciting this season for the Blueshirts, even though the goal differential may not have been all that large. They played sound defense, scored more than two goals, and got tremendous goaltending from Hank. What does that all equal? A tremendously satisfying victory over a rival.

Nine penalties were handed out between the two teams in the first period of this one, including back-to-back fighting majors for newly acquired Brandon Prust and Andrew Peters of the Devils.

Prust deserves credit for engaging in the two scraps, because he is a 5-foot-9 player fighting a 6-foot-4 enforcer. Prust had a great grip on Peters in both fights, and I would call them both a draw. Other than that, nothing else was doing in the first, with the scoring mostly coming in the second.

The Rangers powerplay, which has been red hot as of late, was successful yet again giving New York a 1-0 lead 7:20 into the second stanza. Michael Del Zotto, Ryan Callahan, and Marian Gaborik connected for a tic-tac-toe tally which would be Marian’s 35th of the season and began the explosion by the home team.

With the “Marty” chants raining down from the Garden faithful, Ryan Callahan’s wrister sailed over the shoulder of Brodeur less than a minute after Gaborik’s, and put the Rangers up 2-0.

But wait, they were not done just yet as Matt Gilroy found Chris Drury in the slot who rifled a shot past Brodeur. So that would be three goals in a 2:59 span for the Blueshirts, who found themselves up 3-0 going into the third.

Despite allowing a goal at about the midpoint of the third to ruin the shutout, the third period was all Henrik Lundqvist. The Devils piled on the pressure in attempt to make a run at a comeback, but they would not be able to repeat Friday night’s events because of Henrik in net. You talk about a goaltender stealing a game. Well, then Lundqvist is a theft after tonight, because he took control in that period and was absolutely dominant.

His total saves reached 41 by the time the buzzer sounded to end this one, and a good chunk of those were with the glove. Henrik has been criticized a lot for allowing goals glove-side, and you can tell players around the league pick that spot on him when they get the chance.

Lundqvist said goaltending coach Benoit Allaire spoke to him about using the glove to hold the puck rather than just block it, and boy you saw the difference that made tonight. I will go as far as saying this was Hank’s best performance of the season (watch Henrik's robbery save on Motteau from tonight's game ).

The defense had an overall better outing tonight than they did on Thursday when they hosted the Capitals at MSG. They were blocking shots, forcing the Devils to the outside for the most part, and gave Lundqvist a lot of help around the crease.

New Jersey generated many legitimate scoring chances in the game, but the Rangers made sure that there were no rebounds just lying in the slot. They instead cleared the zone quick and efficiently, not allowing the Debs to capitalize on the dirty goals.

Also, Dan Girardi was assigned the job of containing star winger Ilya Kovalchuk, and he did an exceptional job of doing so. Sean Avery added to that by getting under the skin of the recent acquisition and taking him out of the game with a four-minute double minor for roughing. Kudos to Avery on that one.

Marian Gaborik and Ryan Callahan continue their offensive surges approaching the Olympics where they will be participating with their respective clubs. Gaborik now has 35 goals on the season and Callahan 15, and both are on track to record career numbers.

Focusing on Gaborik, he has done a complete 180 when comparing his recent play to the way he was playing last month. The goals have been going in, he has been racking up the assists, and as a result the Rangers find their overall goal scoring totals going up. Then you have a player like Ryan Callahan to compliment that and it makes winning that much easier.

I think the play of Captain Chris Drury also deserves recognition on this night. The USA Olympian scored his ninth goal of the season, but where he was most effective was in his own zone. Drury was key to the penalty-kill, always blocking shots and putting his body on the line. Really no complaints coming from me about the way Chris has been playing over the past few weeks.

Sure, you can look at the dense contract and say intangibles are not enough, which is true, but you must give credit where credit is due and I think Drury earned that tonight.

This was a crucial victory for the Rangers because they now only have three more games to play until the two-week Olympic break. I am sure John Tortorella would like to go to Vancouver knowing that his squad is in playoff position and in good spirits during their time off (for some) and a lot of that will be based on how they play in the next three.

The Blueshirts will be off until Wednesday when they will clash with the Nashville Predators at Madison Square Garden.