He skated off the ice he always wanted to touch, a 40-year-old father of three still living the dream of the kid from Connecticut.
If this was goodbye, Jonathan Quick left Madison Square Garden with a game to remember in a season to forget, with a reminder that no American goaltender has ever done it better.
In what could have been Quick’s final start with the Rangers — and perhaps his storied career — the former Conn Smythe winner made 31 saves, stopping every shot until the final minute of Saturday’s 4-1 win over the Red Wings.
Rookie Jaroslav Chmelar opened the scoring for the Rangers, then classmate Gabe Perreault added a hat trick, breaking an 11-game goal drought.
The Rangers (32-36-9), who have won four of their past five games, return Sunday night against the Capitals in their penultimate home game of the season.
Quick, who recently returned from an upper-body injury, was making his first start since allowing six goals against the Devils on March 18.
The pending free agent was making just his fourth start since Feb. 5, closing a disappointing season in which he’d gone 5-16-2 with a 3.19 goals against average and .889 save percentage.
In his absence, rookie Dylan Garand made his case for the backup job next season with a pair of impressive performances in his first two career starts.
But head coach Mike Sullivan wanted to see the American legend on the ice again.
The Red Wings (40-28-8) came out firing, but recorded just one shot on net in the first eight minutes.
The Rangers weren’t much more successful, sending the Garden crowd into a lull until Chmelar beautifully redirected a blast from the point by rookie Vladislav Gavrikov, putting the Rangers up 1-0 with 6:41 left in the first period.
It was Chmelar’s fourth goal of the season and second in the past three games.
Fellow rookie Adam Sykora was credited with his first assist in his sixth career game.
Quick faced his first true tests immediately after the Rangers goal, denying Emmitt Finnie’s breakaway and Travis Hamonic’s rebound attempt.
Will Borgen put the defense on its heels after committing a turnover with under two minutes left, but Quick made a throwback split save to stop David Perron’s snap shot in front, sparking chants of “Quickie.”
The goalie made a glove save on Michael Rasmussen to keep the shutout intact early in the second and the score remained unchanged for much of the period, even after the Red Wings went on the power play for the second time.
Then, shortly after the Rangers’ successful penalty kill, Mika Zibanejad made a pretty crossing pass through traffic to Perreault, who delivered his eighth goal of the season over John Gibson’s glove to give the Rangers a 2-0 lead with 4:01 left in the second period.
It was the 20-year-old’s first goal since March 12.
Quick received some help in the third period when Detroit’s J.T. Compher saw his shorthanded shot hit the post, leading to Matthew Robertson setting Perreault up for a tap-in goal with 12:41 left in the third period.
Perreault added an empty-net goal in the final minute.
Even after the Red Wings pulled their goalie early for a 6-on-4 advantage late in the third, Quick stood tall, and sprawled on his stomach, turning away every chance, as the “Quickie” chants returned.
Then he skated off the ice he always wanted to touch, skating away a winner.