King Henrik blanks struggling Crosby, Pens

January 6, 2009   ·   Derek Felix   ·   Jump to comments

Maybe Sidney Crosby and the Penguins were the right opponent for Henrik Lundqvist to pickup his first shutout of the season against. Whatever the reason, life treated King Henrik grander than recently where his goals against was escalating while the team struggled.

Returning from a flu bug which kept him out during Saturday’s 2-1 loss in D.C., Lundqvist was razor sharp stopping all 27 shots while his teammates did something they don’t usually do. Score more than three goals as they thoroughly outplayed the Pens prevailing 4-0 on home ice sending their Atlantic foes to a fifth straight defeat (seventh in nine).

“It is about time. I haven’t even been close to a shutout,” the relieved netminder said after notching at least a 20th win in his first four NHL seasons joining four other players. “Just going into the third without any goals felt pretty good to me.”

“He is just a great, great goaltender,” coach Tom Renney added. “He’ll go down in history as one of the great Rangers. No question.”

It also helped that Lundqvist’s team played well in front of him playing the kind of detail oriented style needed to get out of a recent slump that saw them fall out of first. Sometimes, one win can go a long way even if it came against a struggling club heading the wrong way.

Nigel Dawes continued his hot play getting the Blueshirts off to a quick jump when he beat Marc-Andre Fleury a minute in for a power play goal when his wrister from the left circle went off Pen D Rob Scuderi. It was his third goal in four contests (seventh overall). Paul Mara and Michal Rozsival assisted.

The Rangers got themselves in trouble when Dmitri Kalinin followed a Petr Prucha double minor with a holding penalty handing the Pens a lengthy two-man advantage. Pittsburgh had already come close to scoring with Lundqvist making a couple of sprawling stops. They entered having failed to score two-or-more goals in their last six.

Remarkably, they continued firing blanks with luck even against them when Evgeni Malkin’s one-timer rang off the crossbar eventually allowing the Rangers to successfully kill it off.

Back in the lineup for rookie Lauri Korpikoski, an undisciplined Aaron Voros offensive zone penalty handed the Pens another power play late but they failed to capitalize.

During the second, Crosby twice lost discipline going to the box for a hook and interference off a draw ending a brief PP to loud cheers from a Garden crowd which booed and had derisive chants for their favorite target who didn’t take to it too well.

“Whether the opposing fans are trying to rub it in or not, losing is not fun,” Crosby said. “I wouldn’t expect anything different here, to be honest.”

While Sid the Kid was flustered, so were his teammates with Lundqvist getting a pad to thwart Malkin on a 2-on-0 and Jordan Staal shaking his head after firing high and wide after being perfectly setup from 10 feet out.

Late in the period, Matt Cooke was sent off for interference. Much like the Rangers’ first PPG, it didn’t take long with Mara needing only a Scott Gomez clean faceoff win to blast a one-timer past Fleury for his third increasing the margin to 2-0 at 17:27.

Usually, the underrated defenseman can’t get his shot on net but there were no such issues against an opponent the Rangers won their eighth regular season meeting in a row on home ice against.

“Every time we play them we get excited for it. We want to shut them down like we did,” Mara noted.

“If we play like we did tonight, penalty kill, power play, 5-on-5, we should get our fair share of wins here in the second half.”

They continued to stifle the Penguins in the third carrying the play and more often than not coming out with the puck during scrums. Something which had been lacking recently.

A Prucha collision with Crosby drew cheers as did an Orr hit which got an appropriate response from Brooks Orpik, who paid back the enforcer along the boards at the end of a shift. Rozsival also played a strong game rubbing out Malkin along the board and winning the puck.

Unlike their opponents who sat on two-goal leads blowing them in shootout losses, the Rangers continued to attack and got the just reward when their captain Chris Drury finished off a beautiful passing play for his 11th making it 3-0 with 7:30 left. After working the puck out, they came three-on-two with Dawes dumping the puck behind the net for an open Prucha, who quickly fed a vacated Drury who buried it for one of the best Ranger goals of the season earning loud cheers.

With the Pens on their eighth power play, embattled coach Michel Therrien pulled Fleury for a six-on-four but again came up empty when Rozsival worked the puck to Drury who wound one down the ice to a streaking Gomez, who deposited the empty net shorthanded for the exclamation point with 3:11 remaining.

The fun continued when Orr pounded favorite target Eric Godard.

A pleased Drury summed it up best:

“It was probably our most complete game of the year.”

And one they should store away and put to good use the rest of the way.

Three Stars:

3rd Star-Paul Mara, NYR (PPG, assist, 2 SOG in 19:19)

2nd Star-Nigel Dawes, NYR (PP GW, assist, 3 SOG, +1 in 13:13)

1st Star-Henrik Lundqvist, NYR (27 saves, 1st SHO & 20th win of season)