The New York Rangers are two wins away from the Stanley Cup Finals

The New York Rangers defeated the Montreal Canadiens on Monday night.  The game took place at Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada and the final score was 3-1 Rangers.  The Rangers were down 3 games to one in the second round against the Pittsburgh Penguins and then from that point on haven't lost a game.  They were galvanized by the passing of Martin St. Louis mom and Henrik Lundqvist has been great.  The Rangers stormed back against Pittsburgh and won the series to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.  They now have won the first two games on the road and are heading home with a 2 games to none lead.  They are two wins away from the Stanley Cup Final. 

Henrik Lundqvist made 41 saves and let one goal in.  He was the second star of the game with Ryan McDonagh getting the first star and Derek Stepan getting the third star.  McDonagh and Stepan each had two points.  The goals were scored by McDonagh, St. Louis and Nash.  Rick Nash who has had so much trouble scoring has now scored two goals in the last two games. 

The Rangers have now won five games in a row and are really flying high.  The Rangers broke a 14 game losing streak of trying to increase the lead in a series.  They have finally done it and are playing with so much confidence right now that it looks like it will be hard to beat them.  Lundqvist has really stepped up his game and been like a brick wall and they have a deep balanced team that can put the puck in the net.  The power play is playing much better again and scoring some goals and the penalty kill has been great as well. 

The Rangers would love to win game three and have a chance at a series sweep in game four but they want to at least split the two games and have a three games to one series lead heading back to Montreal to try and finish it.  If they have that and then don't win they will have a chance to clinch it on home ice and head to their first finals since 1994 and have a chance to win their first Stanley Cup since then. 

The New York Rangers defeat the Washington Capitals at home

The New York Rangers defeated the Washington Capitals by the score of 2-1 Sunday night at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The Rangers were trailing 1-0 less then two minutes into the game but they scored the last two goals of the game to secure the win. The Rangers had the better of the play and were badly out shooting the Capitals but still trailed 1-0 after one period. Derek Stepan and Carl Hagelin were the goal scorers and Henrik Lundqvist played well in goal. The Rangers are now 4-0-1 in their last five games. 
The Rangers had 40 shots on goal and Holtby the Capitals goalie probably played his strongest game of the season stopping 38 of them. The Rangers didn’t score until their 30^th shot on goal and that was in the second period. The Rangers penalty kill was 4-4 and the Capitals have a good power play.

Lundqvist finished with 27 saves and 10 in the third period. Darrol Powe was lost to injury after having a hard center ice collision. There was no update on his condition after the game. John Carlson scored for Washington 1:19 into the game, Ribeiro and Fehr assisted. Hagelin scored at the 7:39 mark of the second period and had assists from Ryan McDonagh and Rick Nash. Stepan scored the power play goal which was the game winner at the 4:25 mark of the third period. Brad Richards and Michael Del Zotto assisted on that goal.

The Ranger will now play the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday night at the Garden. The Ranger now have 17 points on the season, they came into the game in eighth place in the Eastern Conference. It is really bunched up right now, the Canadiens were just in front of the Rangers. The final shot totals were 40-28 in favor of the Rangers. The penalties were pretty even with Washington taking five and the Rangers four. There were no fights in the game.