NEW YORK (NY) – After Bruins forward David Pastrnak scored his fifth of the season just ten seconds in, the Rangers managed to find their game and defeat their drained Boston rivals with a final score of 5 to 2. Henrik Lundqvist recored his fourth win with 27 saves.
Opposite in goal was a not so household name in Zane McIntyre. He made 26 saves in his NHL debut. The Bruins were without not one, but two of their starting goalies. Their third string goalie Malcolm Subban sat on the bench after getting pulled in last nights loss to Minnesota, giving their 24-year old rookie a chance to prove himself in the city that never sleeps.
Though he stopped all nine shots he faced in first, including two mini breakaways from Rangers forward J.T. Miller, the Rangers would solve the North Dakota native midway through the first with a power-play goal from Rick Nash.
Following Nash’s breakthrough tally would be four more unanswered goals to give the Blueshirts their third win in a row with a final score of 5 to 2.
The second Rangers goal came from the Boston native Kevin Hayes. He followed up a rebound by shooting the puck behind the goal line, off of McIntyre’s back and into the net. Kevin’s brother Jimmy played for the Bruins tonight and finished minus-1 with five hits.
The Rangers did some tweaking this off season, partially to help their abysmal power-play last year. One of those acquisitions was Brandon Pirri, who has yet to find a solid home after the 25-year old just spent the last five or so years playing in Chicago, Anaheim and Florida.
He notched his third of the year for New York on the power-play with 36 seconds left in the second period to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead heading into the third.
“[Miller] made a helluva pass. When you’ve got a little time like that, you can usually place the puck where you want to. It’s not so rushed,” Pirri said of his tally.
But he wasn’t done there. Pirri would then record his fourth of the season just 2:23 into the third period for a crucial, comfortable lead against a lethal Bruins team.
Jimmy Vesey added to the lead for the fifth goal when Rick Nash thread the needle with a backhand pass directly on Vesey’s tape that went to the back of the net. It was Vesey’s fourth goal of the season and second point of the night as his impressive performance continues.
Rangers head coach Alain Vigneault expressed the importance of special teams and his respect for the Rangers resilience.
“We’re 2 for 4 in that in the second period, which gave us momentum. We carried it to the third. We were getting the puck back and we were a little tired there, but we got a couple goals and you’re going to have success like that in a tough league where all the teams are so close. Every contribution matters.”
The Bruins were without newly acquired David Backes after elbow surgery, but is not considered to miss much time. Boston heads to the motor city to face off against division rival Detroit Red Wings on Saturday at 7pm.
Rangers were without forward Chris Kreider and Pavel Buchnevich, though both could return to lineup by next week. The team will hit the road as well to Carolina to match up against the Hurricanes on Friday at 7:30pm.
Follow Danny on Twitter at: @Danny_PJones
You must be logged in to post a comment.