Lundqvist outduels Crawford in Blackhawks loss

Henrik Lundqvist played like a king Wednesday night.

The New York Rangers’ goaltender ran his career record against the Blackhawks to 5-1-2 with a 3-2 win at the United Center.

Carl Hagelin’s goal with 5:57 to play in regulation following a Hawks turnover snapped a 2-2 tie and gave the Rangers their 12th victory in the last 16 road games. Lundqvist made 35 saves and stood firm in the last minute after the Hawks pulled goalie Corey Crawford for a sixth attacker.

This hasn’t been Lundqvist’s best season to this point, but you couldn’t tell that by the way he played Wednesday.

“I don’t worry about Hank,” Rangers captain Ryan Callahan said. “You see what he does for us night in and night out.”

The Hawks didn’t start exactly the way they wanted, falling behind 2-0 after the first period on Rangers goals by Mike Richards and Matt Zuccarello.

“They’re a talented team that plays well at home,” Callahan said. “We saw that in the second period, but we held our own and came back in the third. We knew it was going to take our best effort coming in here, in a tough place to play, against this team.”

Richards made it 1-0 at 5:06 after a turnover by the Hawks. Callahan picked up the puck and made a nice pass off the boards to Richards, who beat Crawford from the right faceoff dot.

Zuccarello made it 2-0 at 9:29 on an attempted wraparound that hit Crawford’s stick and went into the net.

The Hawks chipped away at Lundqvist and the Rangers and tied it in the second period on goals by Jonathan Toews on a power play at 6:17 and Brandon Bollig at 8:05.

“We found a way to get ourselves back into the game,” said Hawks coach Joel Quenneville, who admitted his team wasn’t at its best. “We shouldn’t be looking for issues. We shouldn’t be looking for whether we’re tired or we get enough days off or we get enough time away. You have to find meaning and purpose for every game.

“I know that human nature some nights says that it’s tough to get excited for every game, but you have to find a way where you might not have your A-game behind you or you don’t have your A-pace behind you, but you play a smart game with a purpose and you get more guys contributing if that’s how they’re feeling.”

That’s two straight games in which the Hawks have scored just 2 goals.

“I don’t really look at it like the offense is dried up,” defenseman Duncan Keith said. “I think it’s always there. I think the biggest thing is just coming out to play a little better overall. We’re getting outworked in a few of these games, and I think, especially there in the first, we were sloppy.”

Both goalies made huge saves in the first two periods. Lundqvist robbed Sharp a few minutes after Zuccarello scored, and Crawford made a big save on Rick Nash late in the second period.

“I think we’ve been playing some pretty good hockey for quite some time,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. “Tonight we had a real strong first period. For the first 10 minutes of the second, they had a real strong portion.

“They came hard at us, but I thought the last six, seven minutes we did what we had to do in that second period and I really liked our third period.”

ŸFollow Tim’s hockey reports on Twitter @TimSassone and check out his Between the Circles blog at dailyherald.com.