Rangers Surge Behind Balanced Scoring and Stalwart Defensemen

The Rangers enter Saturday night’s game in Montreal with a seven-game winning streak. Even after skating-intensive workouts, there were smiles in every corner of the Rangers’ practice facility this week.

“This has been a lot of fun because of the pride we put into each practice and each game as a team,” said defenseman Ryan McDonagh, an early-season standout. “We feel good about what we’ve accomplished because it hasn’t been our stars every night. Look around the room, and you’ll see everyone has contributed.”

Here are four keys to the Rangers’ winning streak.

Scoring Support

The Rangers’ highest-skilled and most compensated forwards — Marian Gaborik (4 goals, 3 assists) and Brad Richards (3 goals, 2 assists) — have been major factors in the run, but each was held off the scoresheet in three of the seven wins. The rest of team’s top six offensive forwards have stepped up: Ryan Callahan (5 goals, 3 assists), Derek Stepan (3 goals, 5 assists), Artem Anisimov (1 goal, 6 assists) and Brandon Dubinsky (1 goal, 5 assists).

“Confidence spreads through the team when so many guys are getting big goals,” Gaborik said. “We’ve had a different hero just about every night.”

The Rangers have out-scored their opponents, 27-11, over the seven wins.

“We’re making big plays at big times,” center Brian Boyle said.

In their most recent victory, a 4-2 win over the Islanders on Tuesday, Richards broke a 2-2 tie by converting a pass from Dubinsky with just under five minutes left in the third period. The Rangers’ nine game-winning goals this season have been scored by seven different players. Callahan and Richards lead the team with two each.

Standup Defense

The Rangers are without Marc Staal, their No. 1 defenseman, who remains sidelined with concussion symptoms. But two pairings of youngsters have embraced the responsibility of shutting down top lines. McDonagh, Dan Girardi, Michael Sauer and Michael Del Zotto are a combined plus-20 during the winning streak. Girardi has averaged 27 minutes 46 seconds of ice time, tops in the N.H.L. McDonagh, who averages just over 25 minutes a game, is 12th.

“With Marc out, we took it upon ourselves to do the job while he takes the times he needs,” McDonagh said.

McDonagh, 22, credits his playing time in the Rangers’ first-round playoff loss to Washington last April as the “wake-up call” for this season.

“In the good moments and bad ones, I learned a lot about a defenseman needs to do at this level,” he said.

McDonagh benefits by being paired with Girardi – at 27, the oldest and most accomplished of the group. The 21-year-old Del Zotto, a precocious puck carrier, is thriving alongside Sauer, a 6-foot-4 stay-at-home type. Coach John Tortorella said his team’s defense is the biggest factor in the Rangers’ knack for scoring clutch goals in close games.

“It’s our play away from the puck,” Tortorella continually stressed to reporters over the last week.

How each member of the blue-line quartet has improved over last season as measured by plus/minus per game:

Goaltending by Two

Henrik Lundqvist has a save percentage of .933, allowing just nine goals over his five wins in the streak. But his goaltending statistics are not even the best on his team. Martin Biron, his high-quality backup, shut out Winnipeg and gave up only two goals to San Jose in his pair of wins.

“Everyone knows Hank is one of the best goalies in the world,” Callahan said of Lundqvist, “but we have the luxury of two great goalies behind us. I don’t know how many teams can say they have the confidence in both our goalies like we do in Hank and Marty. We’ve made our share of mistakes in these games, and we really struggled early in the season. They’ve been our two of our most important players.”

There is an added benefit to Biron’s superb play. Lundqvist has played at least 68 games in each of the last five regular seasons. When the Rangers made the playoffs three of those years, he has not been fresh for the postseason. Tortorella’s trust in Biron should result in Lundqvist starting a more manageable 60 games.

Strong Work Habits

Despite the seven-game streak, the Rangers say it has been easy to stay humble.

“We want to get better each day,” Tortorella said of his team’s approach to practices.

Boyle said: “The good thing is, we’ve been far from perfect. So there’s been plenty for us to work on.”

After their victory Tuesday over the Islanders, the Rangers took one day to rest and then had two practices. Skills were sharpened in drills. Special teams play was adjusted. Line combinations, as always, were tinkered.

“Don’t get comfortable,” Tortorella said before his team left for Montreal. “We want our team to play the right way, and detail work is a part of it. To have a chance against Montreal, we’ll have to be better than we were against the Islanders.”

Rangers Ride Lundqvist to Another Shootout Victory

The shootout victory has become routine for the Rangers. Whether they hang on to stay even with opponents or tie the score late, the Rangers enter the shootout for the win (and second standings point) feeling good about their chances. They have Henrik Lundqvist on their side.

The scene played out again Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, when the Rangers beat Anaheim, 2-1, getting one more stop in the shootout from Lundqvist than Jonas Hiller could manage for the Ducks. As he often does, Erik Christensen started the shootout with a goal; he has scored on 24 of the 46 chances in his career. Lundqvist stopped Corey Perry, but Teemu Selanne beat him in the second frame. After Marian Gaborik scored, Lundqvist stayed with Bobby Ryan from post to post. Ryan’s wrist shot missed, and the Rangers had their second win in a row.

“We found a way to win a shootout,” Coach John Tortorella said after the game. “We’ll take the two points.”

The quote has become a common refrain for Tortorella and the Rangers. The shootout victory was Lundqvist’s 38th, the most by a goaltender in the seven-season history of the tie-breaking skills competition.

Like most hockey purists and fellow coaches, Tortorella does not hide his queasiness about deciding games with a breakaway contest. But he is a coach charged with winning games in the high-pressure atmosphere of New York and the N.H.L. If it appears at times like the Rangers are playing for the shootout, so be it.

This wasn’t the case Thursday. The Rangers dominated a thrilling five-minute overtime of four-on-four play, but they missed the net on a few scoring chances and Hiller made a pair of sparkling saves. But in the Rangers’ locker room after the game, Christensen made no secret about his team doing whatever is necessary to get games to shootouts.

“Torts tells us all the time, ‘There’s nothing wrong with going to the shootout,’” Christensen said. “It’s not like we make a point of playing it safe in overtime; you saw tonight it’s not our style. But there’s nothing wrong with being in the shootout when you have one of the best goalies in the league. Hank’s our M.V.P. He’s good for at least 10 or 11 wins a season for us.”

Christensen’s heart is in the right place, but he may be guilty of underestimating Lundqvist’s impact on the standings. Just 11 games into the season, Lundqvist has been their best player in three of the Rangers’ five wins.

Lundqvist, who is now 38-26 in the shootout, was asked how he feels when he loses one, as he did Saturday at the Garden against Ottawa. “I get really frustrated,” he said. “I take it personal because I’m a big part of it.” He usually looks forward to the challenge of stopping stars like Perry, Selanne and Ryan with most of the fans standing and roaring, but “only when I’m feeling good and confident.” Since the Rangers held Anaheim to just 12 shots on goal over the opening two periods, the goaltender said he never felt comfortable. But he was responsible for sending the game into overtime by making saves on all of the Ducks’ 15 shots in the third, and he handled two of their three snipers in the shootout.

Unlike many of his peers in net, Lundqvist does not keep a notebook on opposing shooters. He pointed to his triumph over the Ducks as his reasoning. “I faced them in the shootout just a few weeks ago in Stockholm” – a loss – “and all of their guys showed me a different move tonight.”

Metro Pucks: Brodeur Aches, DiPietro Returns and Lundqvist Shines

All three marquee goaltenders of the New York metropolitan area N.H.L. clubs made news on Wednesday.

Martin Brodeur will be sidelined 7-to-10 days as he rehabilitates a shoulder injury he sustained in the Devils’ 2-1 shootout win over Los Angeles on Thursday. According to a statement released by the team, Brodeur will not need surgery. In the absence of the 39-year-old Brodeur, Johan Hedberg — who won in relief in the game against the Kings and beat Nashville on Saturday — will start when the Devils host San Jose at Prudential Center Friday.

Rick DiPietro has resumed practicing with the Islanders and accompanied the team on its two-game trip to Florida. DiPietro sustained a concussion last week when a shot by one of his teammates, Brian Rolston, struck him near the temple and shattered his goalie mask. The Islanders have received strong goaltending from Al Montoya and Evgeni Nabakov, their other two experienced pros on one-way N.H.L. contracts. In the team’s first four games of the regular season, the Islanders (3-1-0) allowed just 6 goals. They play the Lightning in Tampa, Fla., on Thursday and the Panthers in Sunrise, Fla. on Saturday.

If league custom would have allowed it, Henrik Lundqvist would have been named the first, second and third star in the Rangers’ 4-0 victory in Vancouver Tuesday night. Lundqvist made 40 saves for the shutout, keeping the game scoreless through two periods while his teammates were badly out-played by the speedier Canucks. Mike Rupp, Brian Boyle, Ryan McDonagh and Marian Gaborik scored in the third period to give the Rangers (1-1-2) their first victory of the season.

“Henrik gave us an opportunity and we found a way,” Rangers Coach John Tortorella said after the game. “Hank was outstanding. That’s the way it works. I was watching a game earlier today where a team was getting spanked and they ended up winning the hockey game. So hopefully we can at least find something good and try to regain some of our confidence here, with just a little bit more juice. That’s what we’ve been lacking.”