Rangers fight hard against Bruins but scoring woes continue
The Rangers (4-6-3) and Bruins (10-1-2) played a hard fought contest with Boston coming out of a 1-0 winner. It was a goaltending duel which came down to who would make a mistake first; Igor Shesterkin or Jaroslav Halak.
Rangers vs. Bruins: Shesterkin excellent except for one mistake
In the second period, Nick Ritchie stayed with the puck and just chipped it over the pad of Shesterkin who failed to hug the post after the initial stop. The 25 year-old has played strong as of late and stopped 29 of 30.
“I let the puck in, I have to be tighter on the post,” Shesterkin said about the only goal. “I will work on this component in practice.”
Currently, Shesterkin has only let in two goals or less in last 5 appearances. Over that time he’s posted a 1.60 GAA with a .944 SV%. Solid numbers and a clear indication that he’s back on track to the level he showed last season.
A valiant effort by Shesterkin, but another where the Rangers offense sputtered and gave him no support. The Blueshirts mustered 10 shot in the opening stanza and then were snuffed out. New York was met by a Bruins brick wall on defense for the second and third periods and only got off 11 more shots for a total of 21.
Rangers showed a ton of fight in the game
The game had 58 minutes of penalties and saw lots of chippy play from Bruins super-pest Brad Marchand who somehow only received one penalty after spearing Brett Howden in the chest twice.
Jacob Trouba was particularly in a foul mood and amassed 6 minutes in penalties, mostly from rough stuff. The Rangers threw 31 hits in the contest and were led by Trouba’s 7 as he was engaged all night.
Brendan Lemieux tuned up Trent Frederic after a quick conversation on a face-off. Then Pavel Buchnevich, not known for throwing a punch took on Jeremy Lauzon and did fairly well. These two are scheduled to meet at MSG on 2/26 and 2/28.
Post Game Notes
- Each of the Rangers’ last 11 games, and 11 of the team’s 13 games this season, have been decided by two or fewer goals, and eight of those contests have been decided by one goal.
- New York was 4-for-4 (8:00) on the penalty kill in tonight’s contest and held Boston to only six shots on goal over the Bruins’ four power play opportunities. The Rangers have not allowed a power play goal in each of the last six games (21-for-21) and have successfully killed off 24 of their opponents’ 25 power play opportunities over the last seven games (96.0%).
The Rangers will practice today at 12:00 p.m. at the MSG Training Center and will be off tomorrow.
Another practice is scheduled for 11 a.m. on Monday before they play the NJ Devils on Tuesday, February 16.
(7:00 p.m. ET – TV: MSG Network)
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