The New York Rangers took a 2-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference Championship against the Montreal Canadiens on Monday night. Winning the first two games a combined score of 10-3, the Rangers are heading back to New York with a lot of confidence. To start this series it looked to be a goalie rematch of the 2014 Winter Olympics gold medal match in men’s hockey – Henrik Lundqvist vs. Carey Price.
This didn’t last long after Price went down with a post-season ending knee injury in game 1 of the series. “We’ve lost our best player,” said head coach Michel Therrien according to TheStar. Therrien had to turn to Dustin Tokarski to play in net, but in the end the true starting goalie shined.
It was Tokarski’s first playoff appearance and only his 11th appearance in a professional game. Saving 27 of 30 shots Tokarski played a solid game, but his counterpart, the king, played lights out. Lundqvist made 40 saves going 19-19 in the third period. He was lights out after letting up the first goal of the game.
"My goal is to leave it all out here...I want to inspire teammates." - @HLundqvist30 #NYRPlayoffs #AboveAndBeyond pic.twitter.com/NlfKKT4Mir
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) May 20, 2014
image via Twitter from NYRangers
At the start of the game it looked as if the Canadiens were in control getting the first five shots of the game and scoring the first goal. However it only took seventeen seconds for that to all change. The Rangers got their revenge as Ryan McDonagh tied the game with a long shot deflected off a Canadiens defender’s leg. Even after the first goal the Canadiens seemed to keep control until just over a minute left in the first period when Rick Nash scored his 2nd goal of the post-season according to BleacherReport.
GOAL: Rick Nash scores for the 2nd straight game to put the #NYRangers up 2-1 late in the 1st. #StanleyCup
— NHL (@NHL) May 20, 2014
Nash, who scored his first post-season goal in game one, had been struggling most of these playoffs. In game one he scored the seventh goal of the game to give the Rangers a 7-1 lead in the third. Just an added stat, this goal also seemed to motivate Nash because he scored the game winning goal last night against the Canadiens. The Rangers are now taking a 2-0 series lead back to New York for game three on Thursday.