PITTSBURGH — It often looked ugly and unconvincing, play sloppy and stilted enough to create more reasons why another deep postseason run isn’t ahead for the Rangers.
But behind them still stood Henrik Lundqvist, the reason why anything remains possible.
Posting his first shutout since Nov. 23, Lundqvist’s 34-save effort led the Rangers to their fourth straight win, a 3-0 victory over the Penguins Wednesday night at Consol Energy Center to extend their longest win streak since November.
Facing the league’s hottest offense, Lundqvist recorded the team’s first shutout in Pittsburgh in nearly 45 years, while snapping Sidney Crosby’s career-high streak of seven straight games with a goal and 11 straight games with a point.
Lundqvist said he was motivated by goaltending coach Benny Allaire’s recent challenge to post more shutouts — Lundqvist has three this season and 58 for his career — but also credited a change in his approach he made in the past week.
“I’m not gonna tell you what, but it really brought me back to something that’s very important to my game,” said Lundqvist (366-222-69), who tied Mike Richter for the most appearances by a goaltender in Rangers history, while passing Martin Brodeur for the most wins by a goaltender in his first 11 seasons in the NHL. “It’s great. They don’t come easy these days for me. … I think when you feel like you’re playing your game, when you feel like you’re doing it the way you should do it, you feel like yourself. It’s more fun.”
Things had previously been just as joyous in Pittsburgh, which had won six of its previous seven games, but the Rangers (31-18-5) used their first meeting of the season to resume their recent dominance, having knocked Pittsburgh (27-19-7) out of the playoffs the past two seasons. The Rangers handed the Penguins their first loss in regulation since Dec. 19, while also ending their six-game home streak.
Though Pittsburgh outshot the Rangers 34-22, Lundqvist silenced the league’s top offense over the past month and has now allowed just five goals over the past four games.
“We knew coming into this building we were playing a really hot team and their top players were playing really well, so we definitely saw it as a great challenge for us,” Lundqvist said. “It was a little bumpy start, but after that I felt like we really got our legs going and our game going, great road win.”
The Rangers struggled to control the puck and registered just one shot in the first five-plus minutes, with three giveaways creating scoring opportunities for the Penguins, but Lundqvist was his standard stone.
The only goal the Blueshirts would need came with 11:26 left in the first period, when Kevin Hayes made up for the team’s failed power play by scoring on a Tanner Glass rebound for his eighth goal of the season and first in the past 13 games.
Despite mounting so few chances, the Rangers grabbed a two-goal lead after another unlikely contribution, as Dominic Moore’s wrist shot beat Marc-Andre Fleury with 15:39 left in the third period. Jesper Fast added an empty-net goal with 1:31 remaining.
On the other end, the defense did all it could to help Lundqvist, blocking 25 shots.
“Team defense is something that we harped on,” Hayes said. “We didn’t get a lot to their net, but I thought we played a good team defense. We smothered them and they didn’t get too many great chances. They got a lot of shots on net, but that’s why we got Henrik.”
And with him, anything remains possible.
“I thought Hank made some big saves at some key times and we were able to get some timely goals,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. “There’s no doubt that our goaltending was outstanding.”