DALLAS — The next time the Rangers play, the trade deadline will have come and gone. So who they are and what they need for another run at the Stanley Cup are questions that have to be answered and ones that will be answered in light of a sweep of a two-game road trip against two of the best teams in the league.
It culminated in a 3-2 win over the Stars at American Airlines Center on Saturday afternoon, a settling performance after a shaky one in a 2-1 win in St. Louis on Thursday. It meant four points for the Blueshirts (36-20-6), now 9-2-1 in their past 12 and creating some distance between them and the bottom of the playoff picture.
“Every year, something happens. That’s been the case for 10 years,” goalie Henrik Lundqvist said about Monday’s 3 p.m. deadline, after which John Tortorella and the Blue Jackets will be in the Garden for a 7 p.m. start. “I love the group, I do. It’s a great group of guys that work really hard, great attitude. But again, I know this management group is doing everything, every year, to have the best chance possible to make it all the way in the playoffs.”
That is the mindset of general manager Jeff Gorton, and it has to be aided by the way his team has come together and won these two games without playing their best. Lundqvist was the main attraction in St. Louis, and against the offensively gifted Stars (38-19-6), it was that old craftiness and grit that willed the Blueshirts through another game littered with puck-management issues.
“Just battling out there, playing Ranger hockey,” said Dan Girardi, who had a difficult night, highlighted by a comedic moment when a puck improbably got stuck between his shield and his face. “Everyone doing what you can to get the win.”
It could have been a lot different feeling had Kevin Klein not netted the game-winner with 2:53 left in the third period, finishing a great play set up by Jesper Fast and Derek Stepan. Just 68 seconds prior, the Stars had tied it 2-2 when Valeri Nichushkin’s slap shot deflected off Girardi’s stick and over Lundqvist’s shoulder.
But the Rangers kept pushing and got the response they needed.
“There’s no doubt that we got some solid goaltending in these two games,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “But the guys in front of Hank competed real hard, and we were able to come into two tough areas and win two tough games.”
Lundqvist said his team has been on the receiving end of some good bounces, and that includes the no-goal call upheld after a league review with 10:33 left in the third period. Tyler Seguin had taken a long shot that Girardi, for some reason, tried to catch. Instead, Girardi said it glanced off his pinky and got behind Lundqvist, where captain Ryan McDonagh jumped on top of it and obscured any camera angle from seeing if the puck had fully crossed the goal line.
“It doesn’t matter what I saw, does it?” said Dallas coach Lindy Ruff, who nearly lost his mind when the review was over.
Midway through the third, McDonagh had banked a sharp-angle shot in off Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen, taking a 2-1 lead. It had been a power-play goal from Chris Kreider and a rebound shot from Colton Sceviour, both in the second period, that had the game tied a 1-1 going into the back-and-forth third period.
“I don’t think we managed the puck extremely well,” Stepan said. “But when we did manage the puck well, we were able to get the job done.”
Now it’s time to see how Gorton does his job, and by Monday night, the Rangers’ roster will pretty well be set for another go at the Stanley Cup.
“You hear things, with the media and rumors, but you just have to go day-by-day,” Girardi said. “It’s tough, but just have to let them worry about that, and we’ll take care of the on-ice stuff. Whatever happens — if we get any new guys, lose some guys — we’re just going to keep on battling, keep trying to climb the standings.”