It had to happen some time. For once this season at least, the Rangers can actually say they beat a Western Conference team. Having entered this afternoon’s home tilt against the visiting Sharks 0-7-2 against the West, it was their final opportunity to come away with two points versus the other conference.

Thanks to inspired performances from forwards Chris Drury and Ryan Callahan along with reliable goaltending from recently re-upped No.1 goalie Henrik Lundqvist, the Blueshirts cameback from a goal down to post a hard fought 3-1 win over San Jose at Madison Square Garden.  

It was their second straight victory temporarily moving them into sixth in the East two points clear of the Flyers, who at last check trailed the Canadiens 2-1 after one period. With 67 points and 21 games remaining, New York trails the division-leading Devils by four points and second place Pittsburgh by two pending the result between the Pens and Sabres tonight. The Penguins led 2-1 in the third.

After permitting the game’s first goal on a nifty Joe Thornton backhand setup to finisher Jonathan Cheechoo, a determined Ranger club cameback to tie it when Chris Drury got to a loose puck and found Ryan Callahan all alone in front for his fourth.

Lundqvist was strong in net for the second consecutive day of a challenging back-to-back allowing only one goal as he had in a 5-1 home win over Buffalo yesterday. The 25 year-old Swede came up with a large save on Milan Michalek’s shorthanded bid getting a pad on it. It would prove pivotal as his teammates went the other way three-on-two with leading point getter Scott Gomez setting up a Drury right wing power play slapper past San Jose netminder Evgeni Nabokov at 5:44 of the second. It was Drury’s seventh goal in the last nine games.

With a focused Lundqvist standing up to the Sharks’ challenge in the third (12 saves) and a solid Blueshirt D doing an excellent job in their end, Callahan salted it away with an empty netter with two seconds to go for his second of the day concluding a very productive weekend.

“These are two big wins to build on,” the 22 year-old Rochester native noted to the Associated Press after recording his fourth goal in five following a lengthy 25-game drought.

“We have a long road ahead of us, but we can move forward and go from here. We have a lot of character in this room from top to bottom. You have to follow your leaders and go from there.“

Lundqvist outdueled Nabokov (30 saves) finishing with 29 stops altogether in notching his 26th win of the season.

If the Rangers are to continue to climb up the competitive East, they must continue to get solid goalkeeping from the former 2000 seventh round pick who was nominated for the Vezina as the league’s top goalie the past two years.

They also must continue to play as fundamentally sound as they did this weekend. Now, the Blueshirts hit the road for a game Tuesday at Buffalo and then go across the border to play Les Habitants next Friday.

We’ll see how they fare. 

For more on this game and how close the Eastern playoff race actually is, please refer to my other blog over at Battle of NY.