It was a regular season that started with uncertainty and a postseason that started with the same.
But this is proving to be a new version of an old story, the Rangers maybe not looking like the most formidable opponent in the playoffs, but somehow finding ways to win — and win big.
Once again, the brilliance of Henrik Lundqvist secured another postseason series victory, a 3-1 win over the Canadiens in Game 6 Saturday night at the Garden that wrapped up their opening-round contest with a bang.
With two goals from Mats Zuccarello, the Rangers now advance to face the winner of the Senators-Bruins series, with Ottawa holding a 3-2 series edge and Game 6 Sunday afternoon in Boston.
“It means a lot,” said Lundqvist, who outplayed his counterpart, Carey Price, not just on this night but throughout the whole series. “That excitement when the puck goes in, you’re moving on. It’s been pretty intense the last few days, but it’s all worth it.”
This was the next step in a long line of success in close-out games for Lundqvist and the Blueshirts at the Garden, now having won eight of the past 10 tries to win a series in front of their fans going back to 2007. One of those also was a Game 6 against the Canadiens, the 2014 Eastern Conference final that ended in the same dramatic fashion, Lundqvist holding his arms high in the air and the 18,006 inside finally remembering how to make this building rock.
Maybe it takes the coming warm weather to awaken those Garden faithful, but this is how the Rangers do it — by winning. So about that six-game postseason home losing streak that continued with an awful performance in Game 3 of this series? With two straight wins here, seems like a long time ago now, doesn’t it?
“It’s no secret that we haven’t been having the greatest year at home,” said veteran defenseman Dan Girardi, whose team also came in with the worst home record of any playoff qualifier. “It started with the great crowd for the anthem and even in warmup they were buzzing. We tried to feed off of it as best we could.”
Possibly the most encouraging sign for the Rangers was that they took every punch from the heavyweight Canadiens and stayed upright. These Blueshirts were supposed to be a team predicated on just speed and skill, but the grit and pushback they showed is exactly what allowed Brendan Smith, a Ranger since just Feb. 28, to make a bold statement.
“I think if we play our game,” Smith said, “we’re a real team to go all the way.”
There is confidence now, but it looked a little different after the Rangers went down 1-0 at 6:19 of the first period, when they allowed Alexei Emelin to walk in and beat Lundqvist’s glove up high. But it was the previously 0-for-14 power play that got them back in it, when Zuccarello took a pass at his feet and was able to beat Price nearside, a goal that the newly named Vezina Trophy finalist surely would want back.
“It’s lucky — it’s not every day you beat Carey Price like that,” Zuccarello said. “It’s a nice power-play goal About time. That was big for us.”
From there, the Rangers held the play and never took their foot off the gas. At 13:31 of the second, Zuccarello was able to whack one in off Price after a great feed from Kevin Hayes, a play started when their third linemate, J.T. Miller, won a battle in the corner.
Preserving that 2-1 lead was Lundqvist, who made some highlight-reel stops, including his sprawling glove save on a Shea Weber bomb at the end of the second period and a jaw-dropping left-pad save on Tomas Plekanec with just 1:45 remaining in regulation. That allowed Derek Stepan to float one up in the empty Montreal net and send the Rangers off for at least one more leg of what they hope is a long spring of hockey in the city.
“I think what made our success during the year was when we took it a game at a time and never got ahead of ourselves,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “We’re not going to get ahead of ourselves now. We’re going to focus on the next opponent.”