NY Rangers @ Montreal 3-1 - Rangers Lead Series 2-0
The Canadiens came out fast and ferocious Monday night, clearly
sparked by emotion for so many reasons. But it wasn't enough, not
against Rangers goalie Henrik
Lundqvist, who turned aside 40 of 41 shots to lift the visitors
to a 3-1 victory at Bell Centre and a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7
Eastern Conference Final. It was the first time in 14 Stanley Cup
Playoff games that the Rangers had won after taking a lead in a
series. Game 3 is Thursday at Madison Square Garden (8 p.m. ET,
NBCSN, CBC, RDS). Montreal forward Max
Pacioretty scored 6:14 into the first period, giving the
Canadiens a positive result after a fast start in which they got the
first five shots on goal and were constantly cycling and dominating
time of possession in the Rangers' zone. Lundqvist turned aside the
final 35 shots he faced. The goal by Ryan
McDonagh 17 seconds after Pacioretty scored had something to do
with it too. The Canadiens had everything going for them early in the
game. They were clearly being carried by the emotion in the building
and the inspiration they felt from within. There was the 7-2 loss in
Game 1 on Saturday that they felt they had to make up for. They were
buoyed by the storyline of Carey
Price, their starting goalie and arguably their best player, who
was forced to watch while wearing a suit and tie and a knee brace on
his right leg because of the collision he had with Rangers forward
Chris Kreider
in Game 1. There was also the fact as a result of Price's injury, one
that Therrien said will keep him out for the remainder of the series,
the Canadiens were playing in front of a rookie goalie, Dustin
Tokarski, who was making his playoff debut. He had appeared in 10
career regular-season games. Not lost in the shuffle were the
21,273 screaming fans inside Bell Centre, who booed Kreider every
time he touched the puck and roared for Tokarski when his name was
announced in the starting lineup. The Canadiens used it all to get
off to a strong start. They even grab a lead on Pacioretty's goal,
but they couldn't build on it. McDonagh tied the game at 6:31 with a
shot from inside the left point that hit off Montreal defenseman Josh
Gorges and the left post before scurrying behind Tokarski at
6:31. McDonagh added an assist later and now has six points in the
series. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, McDonagh is the first
Rangers defenseman to record six points in a two-game span in the
postseason since Brian Leetch earned three points in back-to-back
games in New York’s first round series against the Quebec Nordiques
in 1995. McDonagh, who was held pointless in his first 10 games of
the postseason, has set career highs in goals (3), assists (6), and
points (9). Nash made it 2-1 with 62 seconds remaining in the first
period, scoring on a one-timer off a 3-on-2 rush with Kreider and
Derek Stepan.
After going 15 straight games without a goal, the longest scoring
drought of his career, Nash now has two goals in the past two games.
Lundqvist made Nash's goal stand up as the winner, but it helped that
the Rangers picked up some insurance when Martin
St. Louis scored on a power play at 8:03 of the second period to
make it 3-1. Tokarski fought off the nerves to make 27 saves.
Therrien wouldn't confirm him as the starter for Game 3, but he said
they were happy with their decision to play him over Peter
Budaj on Monday. Tokarski said he spoke with Price prior to the
game, and the message was to "go out there, play your game,
be a warrior." He was solid, but wasn't as big of a warrior
as the goalie on the other side. That might have been impossible
Monday night. Tokarski was pulled for an extra skater when the
Canadiens went on a power play with 4:22 remaining in the game, but
Lundqvist came up with five saves during the 6-on-4 and Montreal's
power play fell to 0-for-7 in the series. Lundqvist made 19 saves in
the third period, matching his career high for most in a period in
the postseason. He had 19 saves in the second period of a 2-1 win
against the Washington Capitals on April 22, 2009.
Michel Therrien: "The reason why we lost
the game was Lundqvist. Lundqvist was phenomenal. Phenomenal. Stole
the game. Tokarski did really well,"
Alain Vigneault: "Lundqvist's the only
reason why we were still in the game. I think he might be getting
that little touch around the net back. That's a really good sign for
us."
Chris Kreider: "It was an amazing
contrast. It was such a loud building, such a loud building, probably
the loudest I've ever been in when they scored, but to be able to pot
a quick one like that it's huge. You can't speak enough about it."
Henrik Lundqvist: "To tie it up quickly
like that, that was important to even out the momentum a little bit.
The first period was a tough one. We knew they were going to come
hard and they had a really strong 20 minutes there, but then going
out in the second with the lead it felt good, we felt confident and I
felt like we played really strong in the second and third. The third
goal obviously was huge for us. You have to win in different ways and
this was definitely a battle from the start. Then we came back to
basics, I felt like, especially in the second and third. You go out
and you have a lot of expectations on you, but you put a lot of
pressure on yourself so it's about finding the perfect place mentally
where you feel like I can handle this, and you want to enjoy it at
the same time. It's fun to be out there even though it's chaos at
times and extremely intense. There are moments throughout the game
where you really enjoy it and there's moments when you're not sure
why you're out there because it's that intense. But it's definitely a
great feeling when you come together as a group and pull off a big
win like this. It's awesome."
Tokarski said of Lundqvist: "He's a
superstar at the other end and he played like it. That was probably
the difference."
Carey Price injured during Game 1
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