Henrik Lundqvist made history Sunday night at Madison Square Garden, becoming the Rangers’ all-time leader in games played by a goaltender, with his 667th career appearance.
He also showed why that number will grow significantly larger.
Lundqvist, who was rested Friday after playing 22 of the previous 23 games, came less than 10 seconds short of recording his second straight shutout, giving a spectacular 21-save performance in the Rangers’ 3-1 win over the Flyers. The 33-year-old has won his past five starts and allowed a total of six goals in that span, with his streak of 122 straight scoreless minutes stopped on a 6-on-4 Philadelphia power-play goal by Brayden Schenn.
“I feel like I’m reading the plays well, [being] patient,” Lundqvist said. “I feel like I’m doing a lot of good things.”
Lundqvist passed Mike Richter for the record.
Lundqvist’s routine dominance has been even more predictable against Philadelphia. In his previous 20 games against the Flyers, Lundqvist had gone 16-3-1 with a 1.81 goals against average.
Ryan McDonagh missed his fourth straight game and an opportunity to face Wayne Simmonds, who gave the Rangers captain a concussion with a punch eight days earlier.
Sunday morning, though, McDonagh took the ice for the third straight day, remaining on track for a potential return this week.
“It’s coming along,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “He’s pushing hard on the ice and he’s also pushing hard in the gym. He’s been allowed to start lifting again. So, the next step is to get cleared for contact and then see how he responds to that.”
With back-to-back games this week — Wednesday against the Blackhawks, Thursday at Toronto — Vigneault plans on giving backup goaltender Antti Raanta another start. Raanta, who described a complete lack of confidence after Friday’s loss to Los Angeles, has lost five straight starts since opening the season with four consecutive wins.
“I’m not overly concerned about the game or the reaction, obviously he was very disappointed,” Vigneault said. “I want to see how he’s going to pick himself up and dust himself off.”
Raanta had not played since Jan. 17 before getting the start Friday, and Vigneault said the team considered sending the 26-year-old to AHL Hartford to get some time playing time.
“That was a possibility, it was something [general manager Jeff Gorton] and I discussed, but just like when he played his first game of the year, he hadn’t played in a while, it was sort of the same scenario,” Vigneault said. “We kept our fingers crossed it would go well for us.”
Rick Nash missed his ninth straight game with a bone bruise in his left leg. … Derek Stepan scored the 100th and 101st goals of his career. … The Rangers went 1-for-4 on the power play, scoring with a man-advantage for the second straight game. Prior to that, the Rangers had failed to convert their previous 15 power-play opportunities. … The Rangers are 8-0-2 in their past 10 home games and have won 11 of their past 12 against the Flyers at the Garden.