The sweep of the abbreviated NHL schedule from Wednesday starts and stops in New York. Om Manhattan, the New York Rangers rediscovered their tepid power play in a 5-2 win over the Boston Bruins.
Mats Zuccarello and Derek Stepan each scored power play goals in the first period to help the Rangers to an early lead.
Derick Brassard scored in the second period to give the Rangers a 3-0 lead before the Bruins put one in the net officially.
Derek Stepan had one of two PP goals for Rangers in win – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
“We definitely have to bounce back,” Bruins center Patrice Bergeron said. “We have to learn from tonight and realize that it’s not even close to being good enough.”
Lee Stempniak and Frank Vatrano had the Boston goals.
“Their power play got some real good looks, [Lundqvist] made some big saves,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. “Our power play was able to get some looks and finish. When you’re able to do that against a real strong team, that’s a real positive for the whole group as far as the confidence level.”
Henrik Lundqvist picked up the win on 39 saves; the Rangers continue to give up big shot totals in games.
“We’re getting closer and closer to the first step of the many goals you set going into the season,” Lundqvist said of the Rangers push for the post season.
The Bruins are in a chase of their own to make the playoffs with the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning putting on the pressure and the loss in New York was not a good effort for the B’s.
“I don’t think we played well enough to win,” Boston coach Claude Julien said. “We seemed out of sync. Those tape-to-tape passes were few and far between. We needed to be better. That was the disappointing part of our game tonight, a game we really needed to win.”
J.T. Miller picked up his 20th of the season and another Rick Nash sighting was reported when he scored an empty-netter to ice the win.
Tuukka Rask left the game early reportedly for illness; Jonas Gustavsson finished the game on 13 saves.
In Brooklyn, the New York Islanders picked up a much needed 3-1 win over the Ottawa Senators.
John Tavares, Matt Martin and Brock Nelson scored to help the Isles snap a four-game schneid.
“We did a good job of getting a lead, especially [against] a team that had to travel and played [Tuesday] night,” Tavares said. “Good to see some pucks go in. Hopefully it can lead to some more.”
John Tavares opened the scoring in win over Ottawa – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Jean-Francois Berube made 22 saves for the win.
Mark Stone was the lone goal scorer for the Sens.
“This time of the year, we’re going to be tired no matter what,” Senators captain Erik Karlsson said. “We had a tough game [Tuesday] where I think we battled hard and came in [to New York] late, but that’s how it is in this League. It’s a good learning curve for a lot of people. We know we’ve got to take something from it.”
Andrew Hammond made 20 saves in the loss.
“It seems as of late, we’ve been playing catch-up a little bit,” Hamonic said. “This time of year, goals are definitely hard to come by. Everyone’s starting to play playoff hockey and gear up for the playoffs. Defensively, it’s pretty stingy out there.
“When you’re maybe not playing your best as a team and you get behind, it’s certainly not an easy feat to have to come back every night, but it makes life a little bit easier when you get that first one and that second one, and then we score again right away after that. They had a good push in the third, but I thought we did a really good job defensively.”
The Islanders won despite another slow start to their game; they were scoreless in the seventh straight first period.
And their power play has gone anemic.
“To me, we’ve got to fight through that mentally,” coach Jack Capuano said. “The power plays were not very good at all, and it can really hurt the momentum and the surge that you have. Right off that bat, we had two [power plays], and it didn’t do us any justice. We didn’t generate much. But we stayed with it and we came back in the second and third, and I thought we played pretty well. Our penalty kill came up big when it had to and [Berube] came up big too. It’s good to get back on the winning track, especially at home in front of our fans.”
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