'Yotes Notes: Raanta Enjoyed Goaltending Duel with Lundqvist

GLENDALE -- Coyotes goalie Antti Raanta stopped 24 of the 25 shots he faced over 65 minutes, but his near perfect outing wasn't enough to win a netminding duel with friend and former teammate Henrik Lundqvist on Saturday night at Gila River Arena.
The New York Rangers beat Arizona, 2-1, in a shootout. Lundqvist stopped 38 of 39 shots through overtime, plus all three he faced in the shootout.

"The first couple of minutes it was a little bit weird," Raanta said of playing against the Rangers for the first time since they traded him to Arizona last summer. "You kind of overthink it a little bit too much. When I got a couple of saves and got into the rhythm it was awesome to play against Hank."
Raanta served as Lundqvist's backup for two seasons in New York. The latter wowed the former with his professionalism and work ethic. The two goalies, one a Swede and one a Finn, developed a friendship based on mutual respect.
Raanta's lone gaffe of the first 65 minutes came when he allowed Jimmy Vesey to beat him with a short-side shot at 5:11 of the second period to tie the score 1-1.
"Always when it goes in short side it's tough to swallow," Raanta said. "It was a nice shot, but of course when the game is 1-0 you don't want to let any goals in ... Hank was so good at the other end you kind of were telling yourself that, 'Hey, you need to stop the next puck also, you can't let in any more goals.'"
Five players took shots in the shootout and only one scored. That was New York's Mika Zibanejad, who beat Raanta with a nifty shot over his glove. Raanta said defending Zibanejad in a shootout is challenging.
"When I saw that Zibanejad was coming, I just tried to remember (his move), but he probably has 16 different moves so it was kind of tough to decide where he was going to go," Raanta said. "He has a quick release and he got it top shelf. I dropped my glove and didn't give myself a chance to save it."
Lundqvist stopped all three shots he faced in the shootout by Coyotes forwards Clayton Keller, Anthony Duclair and Derek Stepan, and was named the game's No. 1 Star.
"He was all over the place," Raanta said. "... It was awesome to play against him. It was really fun. He's been on top of the League for many years in a row. That's the goal and where you want to be someday."

• Stepan notched the 250th assist of his NHL career on Arizona's lone goal, scored by Duclair on a power play at 10:50 of the first period. He said playing against the Rangers this time was much easier than when he played against them for the first time back in October at Madison Square Garden.
"I felt a lot more comfortable tonight," said Stepan, who played his first seven NHL seasons for New York. "Just being at home, I think, was a big thing, and getting that first one out of the way. It was not easy going into MSG, going into the wrong side. To be at home, it felt a lot better."
Lundqvist, however, spoiled Stepan's night when he stopped his shootout shot to end the game.
"I figured I'd just come in and try to beat him low glove," Stepan said. "He made a great save. I thought actually it was going to squeak by him, but he got a pad on it somehow ... He's 'The King' for good reason. He backbones that team really nicely and he was excellent."

With the assist, Stepan extended his point/assist streak to four games.
• Duclair, another former member of the Rangers, also tipped his hat to Lundqvist.
"He knew what I was doing and I knew that he knew," Duclair said of his shootout attempt. "I had one move in mind. I should have just read what he was doing, but he got me on that one."

• Christian Dvorak led the Coyotes with a season-high seven shots on goal.
• Brad Richardson returned to the lineup after missing four games because of an upper-body injury. Richardson skated 15:42, took three shots on goal and won six of 10 face-offs.
• With the loss, the Coyotes dropped to 0-7-2 vs. New York over the past nine games between the teams. Arizona last defeated the Rangers on Oct. 3, 2013.
Head Coach Rick Tocchet said the Coyotes battled hard in defeat.
"I asked them to be professional and I asked them to be mature and I thought they did, for the most part," Tocchet said. "We were in position to win ... Their goalie was the difference tonight."