NEW YORK (NY) – Henrik Lundqvist let up seven goals at home for the first time in his career as the New York Rangers lost their third game in a row. Rookie goalie Magnus Hellberg came in relief of Lundqvist to start the third period stopping all four shots he faced. Lundqvist made 20 saves on 27 shots through two periods.
Dallas Stars net minder Antti Niemi was also yanked in the game, late in the third after giving up his sixth of the night. The at-the-time backup Kari Lehtonen came in relief to stop the eleven shots he would face when he was called upon with 12:34 left in the game.
After a cushion lead the Stars built with goals from Patrick Eaves, Patrick Sharp (2), Jamie Benn, Antoine Roussel, Adam Cracknell and Cody Eakin, the Rangers would pour it on in the third, doing their all to fight back to tie the game.
Through the first two periods the Rangers would get goals from Derek Stepan, Mika Zibanejad and Pavel Buchnevich. The shots after the first two period were 27-15 in favor of the Stars. The shots in the third were an unprecedented 25 to four, in favor of the Rangers.
Chris Kreider, Stepan and Zibanejad would all tally goals in the third period to bring the game within one, but that was as far has the game would go.
The good news for the Rangers, their now-healthy bodies are scoring. Getting two goals from Zibanejad, a goal and two assists from Buchnevich and two assists from Rick Nash is a great sign after the three forwards missed a combined 69 games.
The terrible news, is their defensive and goaltending struggles continue to show themselves. Despite scoring 10 goals in their past two games, they have allowed 12 in that span and 16 in the past three. They look dead in the water at most times and spurts of goals help soften the blow of how they recently have been playing.
“We played two periods of hockey where we leave our goaltender out to dry,” said Stepan. “It’s actually quite embarrassing. It’s terrible. Good teams don’t leave their goalies out to dry like that. That’s just unacceptable.”
The good news for the Stars is that they have only won two games against Eastern Conference opponents, so tonight showed character from a previously struggling squad.
Both teams have a lot of tape to review after letting in a combine 13 goals and how they finish their schedule before the all-star break will remain to be seen.
The Rangers next game will be against the Maple Leafs in Toronto on Thursday at 7:30pm eastern.
The Stars will travel to Brooklyn to face John Taveres and the Islanders on Thursday at 7pm eastern.
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