PITTSBURGH -- The horn sounded and Henrik Lundqvist lifted his arms in a mixture of joy and exhaustion.

Hey, nobody said carrying a team back from the brink was going to be easy, even for the goaltender his New York Ranger teammates call "King."

Determined at the start and dominant at the finish, Lundqvist lifted the resilient Rangers past the rudderless Pittsburgh Penguins 2-1 in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference semifinals Tuesday night to cap a furious rally from a 3-1 series deficit.

"When you face a challenge like that it's about how you answer and we just did it the right way," Lundqvist said. "We came together as a group and played a really smart game."