TORONTO — Henrik Lundqvist has saved the Rangers countless times in his five years in the N.H.L., never more often than this season.
But a soft goal he allowed late in the third period of what turned out to be a 3-2 overtime loss here Saturday night cost them a critical point in their desperate chase for the last playoff position in the Eastern Conference.
“Terrible goal,” said Lundqvist, disconsolate and swearing in disgust, which was extremely unusual for him.
Tomas Kaberle’s shot from the corner along the goal line with 3 minutes 35 seconds to play sneaked in past Lundqvist’s left skate, which Lundqvist had not kept flush against the goal post, and sent what would have been the Rangers’ third straight victory to overtime instead.
“I timed it bad, tried to kick it to the side, and it took a roll and hit my skate and went in,” said Lundqvist, who made a number of sparkling stops among his 29 saves.
Nikolai Kulemin compounded Lundqvist’s agony with a wraparound goal in overtime that left the Rangers with 1 point instead of 2, damaging their chances of reaching the postseason.
The 10th-place Rangers are 4 points out of the eighth and final playoff position, which is occupied by Philadelphia and Boston, two teams tied for seventh. The Flyers lost on Saturday afternoon, but the Bruins won, and Boston has a game in hand. The Rangers have a more realistic chance of overtaking the Flyers. Both teams have seven games to play, including the final two head to head.
The Atlanta Thrashers, in ninth, won on Saturday night and are 2 points out of eighth.
Rangers Coach John Tortorella lamented the chances his team had to put away the game, saying, “You don’t get that third goal, it just leaves that door opened for what happened.” Instead, the Leafs rallied from a 2-0 deficit for their ninth victory in 12 games.
The Rangers have lost only 61 man-games to injury this season, the lowest total in the league. Nevertheless, injuries played a role in Saturday’s game.
Sean Avery limped off favoring his left leg with about seven minutes left in the second period after being pinned to the boards by Leafs defenseman Luke Schenn. He did not return and said he would not know the extent of the injury until Sunday.
“He was probably playing his best hockey of the year,” Tortorella said of Avery. “It hurts the club. He was really focused in there the last couple of weeks.”
The Rangers were already without Ryan Callahan, whose 19 goals make him the Rangers’ No. 2 goal-scorer behind Marian Gaborik. Callahan aggravated a left leg injury during the Rangers’ last-minute 4-3 shootout victory over the Devils on Thursday.
A forward called up from Hartford, P. A. Parenteau, opened the scoring Saturday at 10:25 of the first period when he whipped himself around 270 degrees in the high slot and beat goalie Jonas Gustavsson under the right pad.
Brandon Dubinsky made the score 2-0 with 11 seconds left in the period when Gustavsson, caught on his knees, could not react quickly enough to Dubinsky’s wraparound and got tangled with defenseman Dion Phaneuf.
Gustavsson, who extended his personal winning streak to seven with a 36-save performance, was happy to play against Lundqvist, his Olympic teammate with Sweden and a personal idol.
“Every goalie back there has wanted to be the next Lundqvist,” Gustavsson said.
Thursday’s win over the Devils made Lundqvist the first goalie to be credited with 30 victories in each of his first five N.H.L. seasons, and the first Rangers goalie to record five straight 30-win seasons. None of that mattered to him after Kaberle’s goal.
“For all the chances they had, for them to tie it on a shot like that. ... ” Lundqvist said. “I’m happy the way I played the whole game except for that mistake. It cost us.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/28/sports/hockey/28rangers.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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