On his 23rd birthday, Rangers goaltender Alexandar Georgiev gave himself the present he wanted most on Sunday: A 4-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Garden in the final game of a season-long, five-game homestand.
Georgiev, starting in place of Henrik Lundqvist, had to work, though. The Bulgarian-born goalie made a career-high 55 saves as the Rangers closed out the homestand with a 2-2-1 record. It is the second most saves in a regular-season game in franchise history. Mike Richter made 59 saves on Jan. 31, 1991.
According to the Rangers' stats and information Twitter account, Georgiev is the seventh Rangers goaltender who has made at least 50 saves in a game since the NHL began tracking the statistic in 1955-56, along with Gump Worsley, Jacques Plante, Gilles Villemure, Glen Hanlon, Mike Richter, and Henrik Lundqvist.