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 He did it by working harder than they did.
On a night when he passed Mike Richter for the most career saves in
the Rangers' franchise history, Lundqvist also picked up his 30th
win of the season, stopping 35 of 36 shots in a 2-1 victory.
Lundqvist became the first goalie in history to win 30 or more games
in 10 of his first 11 seasons in the NHL and only the third with 10
or more 30-win seasons in his career. The only other goalies to do
that were Martin Brodeur and Patrick Roy.
"Obviously it's a huge honor," Lundqvist said. "Growing up those
guys were guys I was watching and now I'm up there. It's just a sign
I've been given a chance for a lot of years.
"I've been lucky to play with a lot of good players and been able to
have a competitive team every year so I'm really happy about that."
The win was the 369th of Lundqvist's career. He passed Richter's
record of 17,379 career saves with his 11th save of the game, coming
in the first period.
"Every game you know that you're going to get his best effort and
you're going to get great preparation and he's going to give you a
chance to win," said Rangers coach Alain Vigneault. "That's what you
want from your goaltender."
With the game tied at 1 early in the third period, Lundqvist made
his biggest save of the night when he stopped Blues left winger
Scottie Upshall on a breakaway attempt. The Rangers got the puck,
went down the ice and took the lead on a goal by left winger Chris
Kreider.
"I thought he was going to go butterfly on me so I tried to get it
up above his pad on the glove side," Upshall said of his scoring
attempt. "He's a big goalie and he makes key saves.
"Those are plays in the game that are momentum changers. That play
ends up being the play of the game and when you are on the other
side of that it's tough."
Kreider scored his first goal in nine games since Feb. 4 off a
backhand pass from left winger Oscar Lindberg, firing a shot from
the slot past goalie Jake Allen.
The Rangers' first goal came from left winger Tanner Glass off a
deflection of a shot by defenseman Dan Girardi in the first period.
The win improved the Rangers' record to 8-2-1 in their last 11
games.
The Blues' only goal came on a power-play from right winger Troy
Brouwer in the second period, after Girardi was assessed a double
minor penalty for high-sticking Blues' right winger Vladimir
Tarasenko.
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That was not the only Blues' scoring chance of the night, however,
which left coach Ken Hitchcock frustrated.
"Their goalie outworked us," Hitchcock said. "Their goalie was more
determined than we were. We didn't bear down around the net when we
had the opportunities. Too many times (it has happened). We get
opportunities like this, you need people to bear down and be more
determined than the guy in the 4 by 6.
"We had an empty net three times in the second period and didn't
bear down. You only get so many cracks at it. We've got to see
change here. (We're) living on playing well, working hard; we've got
to see another gear, a level of determination and hunger around the
net if we expect to score goals. You're not going to get soft
goaltending like we got in a couple of games when we scored goals.
This is focused teams right now with focused goaltenders. We're
going to have to be a lot more aggressive."
The Blues lost in regulation for the second consecutive game,
something that had not happened since Dec. 31-Jan. 2. They also
might have lost another player to an injury.
Center Jori Lehtera left the game late in the first period and did
not return. All that was announced was that he suffered an
upper-body injury but he appeared to take a puck off his face. The
Blues said they would know more about his status on Friday.
NOTES: RW Dmitrij Jaskin was inserted into the Blues' lineup in
place of RW Ryan Reaves, who served the first game of a three-game
suspension for his hit on Sharks D Matt Tennyson on Monday night.
... The Blues said D Alex Pietrangelo, out since Feb. 6 because of a
knee injury, could return on Saturday when the Blues begin a
four-game trip at Nashville. ... D Ryan McDonagh and D Marc Staal
both returned to the Rangers' lineup. McDonagh had missed six of the
last eight games, including the last two, with a sore jaw and neck,
while Staal had to sit out the last game because of a sore back. ...
The Rangers play at Dallas on Saturday night.
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