Rangers ride fast start to 6-2 road win vs. Bruins: takeaways
The New York Rangers celebrated Black Friday with their biggest offensive showing in Boston in more than 18 years, defeating the Boston Bruins 6-2 at TD Garden in the NHL’s Thanksgiving Showdown.
Mika Zibanejad scored two power-play goals in 45 seconds, Artemi Panarin had a goal and three assists, and the Rangers made it three wins in as many games this week by beating the injury-depleted Bruins. It was their sixth win in seven games against their Original Six rival.
The last time the Rangers scored as many as six goals in Boston was Jan. 29, 2007, when they beat the Bruins 6-2.
The B’s were without their leading scorer, David Pastrnak, who was sidelined with an undisclosed injury reportedly sustained Wednesday against the New York Islanders, as well as their top center, Pavel Zacha, also with an undisclosed injury. How much difference their presence would have made is questionable considering the way the Rangers (13-11-2) played, especially in the first 40 minutes, while improving their road record to an NHL-best 11-4-1.
The Blueshirts were on their game from the opening face-off; they were quicker to the puck than the Bruins, forcing them into eight turnovers in the first period alone and making life easier than usual for Igor Shesterkin, who finished with 19 saves.
The Bruins woke up in the third period, getting goals 1:47 apart by Casey Mittelstadt and Morgan Geekie, but the Rangers’ four-goal lead proved to be too much to overcome. Alexis Lafreniere hit the empty net with 3:24 remaining and Vladislav Gavrikov scored 26 seconds later to rub a little salt in the wound.
The Rangers grabbed a 1-0 lead 3:28 into the game on their second shot on goal. Will Cuylle’s neutral-zone takeaway from Bruins defenseman Jonathan Aspirot triggered a 2-on-1. He carried the puck into the Boston zone and fed Panarin, who beat Joonas Korpisalo for his eighth goal of the season and sixth in his past seven games against Boston.
New York held the Bruins without a shot for more then eight minutes in the middle of the period doubled its lead at 12:02. Vincent Trocheck’s pass from the right boards near the goal line zipped untouched through the slot and came to Carson Soucy at the top of the left circle. The big defenseman stepped into a shot that caught the top far corner, just under the bar, for his second of the season.
Korpisalo kept his team in the game with big stops on Brett Berard and Sam Carrick before Boston got the game’s first power play when Cuylle was called for tripping Hampus Lindholm with 41 seconds left in the period. The Bruins nearly tied it just before the buzzer, but Geekie misfired on a rebound just outside the left post.
Rangers ride fast start to 6-2 road win against undermanned Bruins
Boston dominated the first few minutes of the middle period. Shesterkin kept them off the board 3:15 into the period when he robbed Alex Steeves on a 2-on-1 break, and the Bruins had a couple of other chances before the Rangers began controlling play again.
The game turned on two careless high-sticking penalties in a span of just under two minutes. Marat Khusnutdinov got a two-minute minor at 12:21, and after the Rangers forced Korpisalo to make three superb saves, Lindholm drew a double minor for high-sticking Jonny Brodzinski with six seconds remaining on the first penalty, giving the Rangers a brief two-man advantage.
Zibanejad took a perfect feed from Panarin and beat Korpisalo with a knuckling one-timer at 14:22, one second after the 5-on-3 power play expired. He scored again at 15:07 when Bruins defenseman Nikita Zadorov deflected his pass for J.T. Miller into the net.
Maybe it was being booed off the ice after going down 4-0 and failing to get a shot on goal in the final 15 minutes of the second period, or maybe coach Marco Sturm’s between-periods speech was inspiring. Whatever the reason, the Bruins came out on fire in the third period, cutting the deficit to 4-2 before the first TV timeout.
Mittelstadt broke up Shesterkin’s shutout bid at 4:07, banging in a rebound in the crease off a scramble. Rangers coach Mike Sullivan called him timeout at 5:54 as the Bruins continued to press, but the Bruins won the draw and Geekie cut the Rangers’ lead to two goals by deflecting Henri Jokiharju’s shot past a screened Shesterkin.
But that was as close as the Bruins got. The Rangers began controlling play again, holding Boston without a shot after Geekie’s goal until Lafreniere’s empty-netter sealed the win. Gavrikov rubbed it in a bit when he tipped in Trocheck’s shot 26 seconds later.
Key takeaways after Rangers beat Bruins 6-2 for third straight win
Fast start = two points
The Rangers skated off the ice after the first period up 2-0, the first time in eight games they led after 20 minutes. The last was Nov. 12, when they were up 3-2 on the way to a 7-3 road victory against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
This was the first time all season the Rangers led by two goals after the first period, and the first time since the win against the Lightning that they scored more than once in the opening 20 minutes.
The best sign was that they didn’t let up in the middle period, when they held an 8-2 advantage in high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick, and outscored the Bruins 2-0 again to skate off to a 4-0 lead.
After giving up two quick goals early in the third, they kept Boston off scoreboard and the shot clock until the goals by Lafreniere and Gavrikov locked up the win. But the fast start meant the Rangers could overcome the push by the Bruins and head home with a win.
“I thought after they scored, we started to respond again and started to play the game that we wanted to play,” coach Mike Sullivan said.
Stars step up
The Rangers aren’t going anywhere without their top players leading the way. Panarin, Zibanejad, Adam Fox and Shesterkin did just that on Friday.
Panarin is up to 26 points (eight goals, 18 assists) in 26 games, including 19 in 16 contests since he shaved his head three weeks ago. The four-point game was his third of the season and second in the Rangers’ past nine games.
Zibanejad grabbed the team lead with nine goals and scored his fifth and sixth of the season on the power play. Fox quietly had three assists, while Trocheck had the primary assist on two goals, giving him 10 points (three goals, seven assists) in 10 games since he returned from an upper-body injury.
Shesterkin wasn’t severely tested but came through with a couple of big stops when the game was close.
The Rangers need a lot more efforts like this one from their top players.
Road warriors, home worriers
The Rangers lead the NHL with 11 wins away from Madison Square Garden; they are the only team in the League to hit double figures in road wins.
The problem has come at home, where the Blueshirts are 2-7-1 — the worst mark in the League — and winning at home is about to become especially critical.
Beginning with a Saturday matinee against the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Rangers play four of their next five games at the Garden. All four of those wins come against top-level teams; the Lightning and Colorado Avalanche lead their respective conferences, and the Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights are perennial Cup contenders.
In all, the Rangers play eight of their next 11 games at home. They can’t afford to waste more opportunities at the Garden.
Does Igor go back-to-back?
Shesterkin has been in goal for all three wins this week, allowing two goals in each game. The only game in which he was severely tested was the 4-2 road win against the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday, when he made 36 saves. He saw 21 shots in a 3-2 home victory against the St. Louis Blues on Monday and the win at Boston.
Ordinarily, Shesterkin and Jonathan Quick would each start one of the two games. But Quick went on IR on Tuesday with a lower-body injury, with rookie Dylan Garand recalled from AHL Hartford to serve as backup.
However, Garand has never played in an NHL game, so the question is whether Sullivan wants to give him his NHL christening in a game against the Eastern Conference-leading Lightning, one of the NHL’s highest-scoring teams.
“I might,” the coach said when asked after the game whether he’ll ride with Shesterkin.
But will he?
“I’ll tell you tomorrow”
