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Lundqvist bounces back, steals one for Rangers

at Madison Square Garden on October 8, 2017 in New York City.

at Madison Square Garden on October 8, 2017 in New York City.

Bruce Bennett

Henrik Lundqvist still has it.

After getting benched on Saturday night in Toronto, the New York Rangers’ long-time starter bounced back in a big way on Sunday night to help lead his team to its first win of the season by stopping all 34 shots he faced in a 2-0 win.

Brady Skjei and Mika Zibanejad provided the offense in the win, but the story of the game for the Rangers was absolutely Lundqvist.

In what was almost certainly a rerun of last season for Rangers fans, their team ended up getting outshot by a 34-25 margin on the night (the total shot attempts were 64-43 in favor of the Canadiens) and spent most of the night defending in their own zone. But Lundqvist was able to play what was by far his best game of the young season and keep the Canadiens off the board.

He needed a game like that after giving up eight goals in his first two starts.

He also needed a lit bit of assistance.

It appeared as if the Canadiens scored two goals early in the first period only to have them both end up being disallowed.

First, Andrew Shaw had an apparent goal taken away when it was ruled he kicked the puck into the net behind Lundqvist.

Just a few minutes after that, another potential Canadiens goal was negated when the Rangers challenged for goaltender interference. After review it was determined that Max Pacioretty had interfered with Lundqvist, keeping the game scoreless.

Not long after that, Skej broke the ice with his first of the season.

Rangers coach Alain Vigneault made some lineup changes on Sunday by going with seven defenseman and benching Brendan Smith after he struggled in his first two games.

As for the Canadiens, well, this wraps up a pretty miserable weekend that saw them get blown out in Washington Saturday night then shut out in New York on Sunday.

Even though they have a win on the season they still have not held a lead at any point. They won their first game of the season in a shootout against the Buffalo Sabres (playing the entire game either from behind or tied) and were then never really in Saturday’s game against the Capitals.