BOSTON, Mass – Fresh off a 2-1 overtime Winter Classic victory against the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday, the Boston Bruins hit the road to Madison Square Garden to face the New York Rangers at 7pm EST.
Despite going 4-1-0 in his last five, with a 1.60 goals-against average, and a .946 save-percentage, Tuukka Rask will start between the pipes for the B’s in tonight’s contest. And as for the Rangers, Henrik Lundqvist will appear in his 38th game of the season as New York’s netminder.
Rask faced the Rangers in his only NHL appearance last season on Jan. 31, 2009, at the TD Garden.“Tuukka Time” stopped all 35 shots he faced en route to his first NHL career shutout, as the Bruins skated past the Rangers, 1-0.
The Bruins went 2-1-1 against the Rangers last season. In fact, three of their last four meetings last season ended with a final score of 1-0. The fourth: a 3-2 shootout loss.
The Bruins will look to their best player[s] in forward Patrice Bergeron, along with defenseman Zdeno Chara, to shut down the Rangers scoring leader, Marian Gaborik. No. 10 leads all Blueshirts in goals (27), assists (25), points (52), and shots on goal (148).
There have been a handful of players that have been exceptional for Boston over the past week.
Marco Sturm is riding a four-game goal streak, including the overtime game-winner at the Winter Classic , and has five goals in his last six. Also in their last six games, center Marc Savard has tallied 1-7-8 during that span, and Big Z has pitched-in with 1-5-6. And not to be outdone, Bergeron has 3-4-7 totals in his last eight contests.
The B’s are 3-1-1 in their last five games and 5-3-2 in their last 10—sit alone in second-place in the Northeast Division, and fifth overall in the Eastern Conference. Meanwhile, the up-and-down Rangers have compiled a 2-1-2 record in their last five and a 5-2-3 record in their last 10. New York’s 43 points lands them in third-place in the Atlantic Division and eighth overall in the East.
The Bruins and Rangers are facing-off for the 617th time in their lifetime series. Boston holds a winning overall record and scoring edge, but a losing 117-136-55-2 record on N.Y. ice.
Rebounds:
Defenseman Mark Stuart remains on the IR with a broken sternum, but has begun skating under the watchful eye of Bruins’ strength and condition coach, John Whitesides. Also, power forward Milan Lucic has been removed from the IR list, has been wearing a red “no contact” jersey, and will be making the road-trip to New York and Ottawa. It’s official, the Bruins inked veteran winger Miroslav Satan to a $700,000 contract for the rest of the 2009-10 season. He, like Lucic, had skated with the team, wearing the “non contact” sweater.
The Bruins are entering their ninth [of 17] back-to-back night games tonight and tomorrow [against the Senators]. They are 5-1-2 in games ones, and 3-4-1 in game twos.
Contact mark.marino@prohockeynews.com
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