DALLAS – It was Henrik Lundqvist’s first start in the last four games and he made the most of it. The all-star goalie stopped all 27 shots, including 18 in the second period, to defeat the struggling Dallas Stars.
Opposite goalie Antti Niemi played remarkable as well, stopping 27 of the 29 shots he faced.
Goalie Henrik Lundqvist (#30) – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Lundqvist had been benched the last four match ups to find his game while back-up Antti Raanta had been the man to lean on.
A scary moment happened 9:19 into the fist period when Stars forward Cody Eakin came charging around the back of the net when Lundqvist went to shovel the puck away. Eakin seemed to try to squeeze between the goalie and the boards where there was no room and ended up taking Lundqvist’s helmet off with a hard hit to the head.
New York’s goalie went down hard and stayed down for a while after understandably being shaken up.
Eakin received a five-minute major and a game misconduct.
Just a couple minutes later Lundqvist would return to finish he game and give his team their 21st win of the season, the most in the league.
Rick Nash made his return after missing a week with a groin injury and made himself apparent all night. His biggest play all night, and the teams biggest, was at 12:52 of the third period when the Rangers finally broke the tie.
New York was killing a penalty when Stars captain Jamie Benn would make a no look back hand pass on the opposite blue line which Nash was able to read. He sprung for a breakaway and went bar down on Niemi to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead.
Forward Mats Zuccarello would seal the deal with an empty netter and his first goal in the last 14 games.
The Rangers next game will be in Nashville against the Predators at 8pm ET.
The Stars will host the Flyers on Saturday at 1pm CT.
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