In Boston, the Bruins have two games in hand on the New York Rangers in the race for the fourth playoff spot in the division. They also had four point lead in the race. 
On Wednesday night, the Bruins protected that lead with a 4-1 win over the visiting New York Islanders.
Tuukka Rask made 22 saves to get the win.
“Well I think I’ve been fortunate enough to play on a really good team throughout my career, so that helps a lot,” Rask said. “We’ve had some great defenses throughout the years and [I’m] just happy to be part of that. Super grateful that I’ve been able to play so many years.
“But it’s a great milestone. It’s one of those that once you’re done playing hockey and years after that, you think about your career and what you accomplished and it’s probably going to be a nice memory.”
The Rangers beat the New Jersey Devils, 4-0, on Thursday night.
Travis Zajac was the lone goal scorer for the Isles, his strike closed a 2-0 gap between the teams to 2-1.
“This is a veteran group, so they know when something’s not good enough,” Zajac said. “I thought after the first, we were able to get our legs and get on the forecheck and turn some pucks over and make some plays. We started winning more battles and were able to get a few more chances.”
Brad Marchand and Craig Smith staked the Bruins to a 2-0 lead.
After the Isles closed the gap, Taylor Hall restored the two-goal lead.
“I mean you always want to contribute,” Hall said. “As an offensive guy, you don’t come into every game hoping to score a goal but you want to make plays, you want to create chances, and I thought tonight our line (Hall, David Krejci, Craig Smith) did that. So, it was nice to see one go in.
“But we have such a heavy schedule now, you’ve got to kind of drop games after their done and focus on the next one.”
Marchand scored his second of the night into an empty-net to ice the win.
“They came out hard. That’s really it. They came out flying,” the Islanders’ Mathew Barzal said. “It’s a big game. It was a big game for them. They’re fighting for a spot, we’re fighting for the top of the division right now. It’s two good teams going at it and their compete level was higher than ours tonight.”
Semyon Varlamov made 41 saves in the loss.
“You know it’s unacceptable in terms of just, we came out slow,” Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said. “You know Boston’s desperate, they know it’s a big game and they were focused on us. They came out and set the tone and we’ve got some guys that didn’t want to accept the challenge.”
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