2D-Grafik » . "I was in disbelief when they placed h

NEW YORK – On this day, at least, it was the King and not the Kings standing at the very top of the castle. Henrik Lundqvist did all he could to keep the Cup from seeing the light of day on Wednesday night, stopping nearly every piece of rubber flung his way in a do-or-die tilt for the Rangers at MSG. Vowing to raise the level of his performance just a day earlier, Lundqvist did that and more, turning aside 40 of 41 shots in a 2-1 Game 4 win. “It was pretty self-explanatory out there,” said Dan Girardi. “He was the King tonight for us, making huge saves when he had to.” Girardis unfortunate broken stick catapulted the Kings to their only goal on Lundqvist, a breakaway marker from Dustin Brown midway through the middle period. It was from that point on that the 32-year-old simply took over, preserving the Rangers one-goal lead amidst an avalanche of incredible pressure from an L.A. squad intent on capturing the Cup for the second time in three years. New York was outshot 15-1 in the final period and an unimaginable 26-3 over the final 31-plus minutes of regulation, completely dominated by the Cup-hungry Kings. Lundqvist turned every shot aside though, rising to every challenge his rivals could muster. “Goaltender was real good,” said head coach Alain Vigneault with a smile, asked how the Rangers managed to preserve a 2-0 lead after failing to do so in Games 1 and 2. “He had to make some huge saves in the second and the third. He got and we got a few bounces. You need those. Maybe the luck is changing a little bit.” Believing the breaks had been against them in the opening three games, the Rangers saw that luck turn in their favour in remarkable fashion on this night. On not one, but two occasions did a puck sneak through the pads of Lundqvist and land squarely on the goal-line, kept at bay by morsels of snow before a Ranger could calmly swat it away – first Anton Stralman midway through the first frame and later Derek Stepan in the dying moments of regulation. “Dont fool yourself either,” said Stepan. “Hank stood on his head. He made some big saves at big times for us. Those are the big plays we need at certain moments to keep the momentum or shift the momentum. Hank stood tall and hes a big part of why were going back to L.A.” Lundqvist and the Rangers are now 11-2 in their last 13 games when facing elimination, the King entering the night with a .957 save percentage in such situations. “When everything is on the line, you just have to challenge yourself the right way, I guess, as a team and personally,” said Lundqvist, who allowed 11 goals in the first three games against the Kings. “You have to go out there and leave everything out there and be extremely focused. One mistake and the season is over. Youre definitely aware of that. When you go out to these types of games where you know everything can be over after this period or after the next two periods.” Despite relentless waves of pressure over the final period and a half the Kings believed they could do more to disrupt the Rangers Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender. “I think we can do a better job getting to him,” said Anze Kopitar, one of only three Kings without a shot on goal. “I think [there were] a couple of times where we didnt make it tough on him. The pucks were sitting there. But the pucks hes gonna see, hes gonna stop. Thats just how it is.” Despite owning the back half of Wednesdays game, L.A. is now forced to make the long flight back west in hopes of procuring the Cup on home ice. It was two years earlier in the 2012 Final that they raced out to a 3-0 series lead only to drop Games 4 and 5 to the Devils before finally emerging with the first Cup in franchise history at Staples Center in Game 6. “Were going back home, thats where we won it last time, hopefully we can do the same thing again,” said Drew Doughty. The Rangers, meanwhile, were searching for just one win, viewing Game 4 as a best-of-one they had no choice but to capture. Rallying from a 3-1 deficit in the second round against the Penguins, their focus now shifts to bringing the series back to the Garden for Game 6 and hopefully beyond. “Well, we went into this game with the approach that we wanted to win at home in front of our fans,” said Lundqvist. “That was our approach. We got that accomplished. Now were looking for the next game.” Buy Air Max 97 Cheap . Portland won Game 4 Sunday night at the Moda Center and are now up 3-1. The last time the Blazers won a playoff series came in the 2000 Western Conference semifinals against the Utah Jazz. Air Max 97 Discount . Last year, Matt Kuchar closed with a 4-under 68 to beat Kevin Chappell by two strokes for his second win of the 2013 season and sixth of his career. http://www.cheapairmax97.net/."; Those traits were clear to the 24,071 at Olympic Stadium on Saturday as the Impact dominated the scoring chances but settled for a 2-2 draw with the New York Red Bulls in a battle of still-winless Major League Soccer teams. Air Max 97 Clearance . The defeat leaves the 41-year-old Nestor to concentrate on the mixed-doubles event after winning 12 straight matches and winning Australian titles in Brisbane and Sydney with two different partners. "This was a little bit of a let down, but all credit to them," said Nestor. Air Max 97 Cheap Sale . Finlands Kari Lehtonen made 26 saves to lead Dallas over the Phoenix Coyotes 2-1 Saturday night. He received plenty of help from the Stars defence and got goals from Ray Whitney and Russias Valeri Nichushkin. SAN FRANCISCO -- Cuban defector Odrisamer Despaigne made fired San Diego general manager Josh Byrnes look good in his sterling major league debut. Despaigne became the fourth Padres pitcher to throw seven scoreless innings in his first big league start, leading San Diego to a 6-0 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Monday night. "He pitched great didnt he?" Padres manager Bud Black asked. "Are you kidding me? That was great." Tommy Medica hit a two-run double off Matt Cain (1-6) after the umpires took away a three-run home run by Yasmani Grandal on a replay review to give the crafty Despaigne (1-0) the support he needed. Despaigne, who defected from Cuba last summer, got the win less than two months after Byrnes signed him to a minor league deal. Byrnes was fired Sunday so he didnt get the chance to benefit from the decision. Despaigne had a 6.03 ERA in seven minor league starts in his first season as a professional after defecting from Cuba last summer. "It took me for surprise to be here," he said through an interpreter. "It was a dream come true." Despaigne kept the Giants off-balance all game by changing his arm angle and mixing in big, slow curveballs with his harder pitches. He allowed four hits and became the seventh pitcher in the past 100 years to throw at least seven scoreless innings with no walks in his first career start. Despaigne had the element of surprise in his favour as the Giants had not even seen him pitch in spring training. "At this point in the year youve kind of seen everything but he was just on," right fielder Hunter Pence said. "He was locating, he had the ball moving a lot of different directions. He threw me pretty much everything. He didnt really leave too much over the plate. I think he just mixed it up the whole game." The Giants lost for the 10th time in 13 games. Neither team had a hit in the first three innings before the Padres got to Cain in the fourth. The rally started when Everth p;Cabrera reached on a one-out infield single and advanced to third on Seth Smiths single.dddddddddddd One out later, Grandal hit a drive to right-centre that initially appeared to clear the wall for a three-run homer. But Pence immediately signalled that a fan interfered on the play and ran toward the umpires to protest. The umpires called for a video review and the play was changed to a double with Smith being sent back to third base even though he most likely would have scored easily from first on a two-out hit to the deepest part of the stadium. Black ran out of the dugout to challenge the ruling and was immediately ejected by crew chief Brian ONora. "I just thought the logical thing to do was have Smitty score," Black said. "I was in disbelief when they placed him at third base." The call became moot when Medica followed with a two-run double to make it 3-0 as Cain struggled once again. The Padres tacked on three runs in the eighth with an RBI single by Cabrera, a run-scoring double to Smith and a throwing error by Pence. Cain allowed six runs and seven hits in 7 1-3 innings and has just one win in 12 starts this season. "Ive been throwing the ball good but I havent been making the pitch that I need to here and there to shut down an inning," Cain said. "I need to do a better job of doing that. I think everything else will work itself out but Ive got to make those pitches." NOTES: There was a pregame video tribute to Padres Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, who died last week at age 54. There was also a No. 19 honouring Gwynn on the wall in right field. ... Padres 3B Chase Headley (back) missed his fourth straight game but could return Tuesday. ... Giants OF Angel Pagan (back) missed his seventh straight game. ... Giants INF Marco Scutaro (back) is scheduled to play three innings on a rehab assignment in the Arizona League on Tuesday. ... Tim Hudson (4-2) starts the second game of the series for San Francisco against Jesse Hahn (2-1). ' ' '