Staple: 'Dead tired' Lundqvist finally ran out of gas

PHILADELPHIA

After 65 minutes, through regulation and a very tentative overtime Sunday, the Rangers somehow were in position to steal out of the Wachovia Center with not just an extra point but a postseason berth.

All thanks to Henrik Lundqvist. He had mastered the Flyers for those 65 minutes, making 46 saves and giving up only one goal. It seemed, as John Tortorella and every other Ranger said, that the advantage in a shootout was all for the visitors.

The Rangers had Lundqvist. The Flyers had Brian Boucher, who had eight wins on the season and was ready to be the latest in a long line of goaltending goats in Philly.

One problem: The King, Lundqvist, was beat. Finished.

"I was dead tired," Lundqvist said, discounting that the Rangers had the upper hand heading into the most tense, most important shootout since the NHL instituted the skills competition five years ago.

So Danny Briere beat Lundqvist with a late fake, and Claude Giroux whipped a shot through Lundqvist's legs after nearly coming to a full stop about 20 feet from the net.

One goal in 65 minutes, on 47 shots. Then two goals in about three minutes, on three shots. Game over. Season over.

You could say it was a shock, but Lundqvist didn't seem so surprised. It was only because of him that the Rangers were in a shootout, and he wasn't terribly pleased that in the biggest game of the season, he had to do it all.

"Our fourth line [Jody Shelley, Artem Anisimov and Brandon Prust] was our best line the last two games," Lundqvist said. "They played great. But it's tough to win two games against Philly when your fourth line is your best line.

"I thought we worked hard. But they were the better team."

This is as close as Lundqvist will come to indicting his teammates, especially the ones whose names usually are above the marquee along with his. Marian Gaborik played a physical game Sunday but went scoreless. Ditto Brandon Dubinsky, Olli Jokinen and Vinny Prospal.

Jokinen, who won't be a Ranger next season for sure, also figured prominently in the final moment of the season.

John Tortorella does not dissect his decisions for the media, and so it was again Sunday that he declined to discuss why Jokinen and not Gaborik - or Dubinsky, or Prospal, or Anisimov - was chosen as the third shooter in the shootout.

Jokinen came into the game with a 14-for-35 (40 percent) success rate in shootouts, far better than Gaborik's 2-for-18. But with the season on the line - and that final shooter often does turn out to be a crucial one - was it Jokinen, the mercurial deadline rental, whom the Rangers wanted with the game on the line?

Ultimately, though, it might not have mattered who took that last shot. Lundqvist had to carry the Rangers for a few more shots, a few more minutes, and he collapsed under the weight of 18 teammates, the coaching staff and a few hundred thousand fans watching at home.

"He came up huge, gave us an opportunity," Dubinsky said. "It was a chance to pay him back for all the work he does for us and we didn't come through."

Lundqvist needs a team around him to be better in big moments. He didn't get that Sunday, as he didn't get it last spring in the win-or-go-home 2-1 loss to the Caps in Game 7 of the Rangers' first-round playoff loss.

Somehow the Rangers got to a shootout, where it looked as if they had the upper hand.

Too bad their MVP was running on fumes.