May 25, 2013; Boston, MA, USA; The Boston Bruins celebrate an empty net goal against the New York Rangers during the final seconds in game five of the second round of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs at TD Garden. The Bruins won the game 3-1 and the series 4-1. Mandatory Credit: Michael Ivins-USA TODAY Sports

Before this series began everyone was talking about if the Bruins could pierce Henrik Lundqvist‘s armor. It’s music to this journalist’s ears that those questions have been answered.

Despite losing Game 4 and missing out on sweeping the New York Rangers, the Boston Bruins came back to TD Garden and played quite possibly the most physical game of both the 2013 season and the post-season. From the first 20 minutes the Boston Bruins looked poised to win this game and defy all odds, and those odds poured on pretty quickly. The Boston Bruins gave up a Dan Girardi powerplay goal 10:39 into the first period. The Bruins struck back to tie 3 minutes into the second period with a powerplay goal from rookie defenseman Torey Krug. Krug has certainly made a name for himself, being a slow starter and given random spots during the regular season since singing with the team in 2012, the young budding star has 5 points in 5 games, with 4 of them coming in the New York Ranger series. The Bruins would take the lead later on in the period on a rebound tap in by Gregory Campbell and the Merlot Line centreman would seal the deal with an empty net goal putting the Bruins up 3-1 and moments later 4-1 in the series to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2011.

The center stage point of this entire series was how the Bruins would deal with “King” Henrik Lundqvist. A long time thorn in the side of the Boston Bruins, Lundqvist seemed unbeatable. Game 1 saw the Rangers goalie allow only 2 goals on 48 shots in regulation before giving up a third in overtime. The Bruins have always had a difficult time putting more than 3 pucks past the Rangers netminder, but Game 2 was a big step for the Bruins. The Bruins peppered Lundqvist with 32 shots and scoring 5 goals, to the Rangers credit they did get 2 past Tuukka Rask, but the big dent put in the Rangers was certainly felt. Game 3 was back to typical Lundqvist play however, 2 goals against and a .941 SV% showed that the Rangers still had a little bit of fight in them. Game 4 saw the Bruins score 3 big goals, but the Rangers capitalized on some nasty fluke plays by the Bruins and gained the momentum to win Game 4 and avoid being swept. Despite this however the Bruins determination and will power showed through the adversity, and they beat Lundqvist and the Rangers 3-1 in Boston.

Make no mistake however, the New York Rangers are a scary good team with a scary good goalie. All respect to the phenomenal play of Henrik Lundqvist and the bite and energy of the Rangers offence. Ryan Callahan, Derek Stepan, and Brian Boyle getting the huge honorable mentions for their tremendous play in this series and hats off to the role players in Chris Kreider,  Rick Nash and Derick Brassard for giving the Rangers a chance to pull an upset on the Bruins. The Rangers are a tremendous talent and have seen through some hard time this 2013 season. Narrowly missing the playoffs and with the future of their head coach hanging over their heads, it says a lot of the Rangers to be able to power through the 3rd place Washington Capitals and almost have a chance to put away the Bruins.

It’s been a tough ride, but it’s about get even tougher. A rematch 21 years in the making is coming next.

May 21, 2013; New York, NY, USA; Boston Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuk (55) celebrates after scoring on New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist (30) during the third period in game three of the second round of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Madison Square Garden. Boston won 2-1. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports

For a little while, it looked like the parallels of the 2011 season were going to happen all over again. Then the refs showed up. It’s pretty safe to say that the Bruins have shaken off the confusion from that very odd loss in game four at Madison Square Garden. The Bruins will be playing today at home, where Bruins Nation should give Rangers’ coach John Tortorella the opportunity to come up with new combinations of profanity.

One thing Bruins Nation has missed is NESN’s coverage of the Black and Gold. What we have had to put up with is CNBC’s reporting of mispronounced names, and a flagrant bias of everything Henrik Lundqvist. (Hearing Todd March-and Zay-dano Chair-a has been driving me nuts, anyone else?) One of the members of the bias brigade, CNBC commentator Pierre McGuire did have some surprising things to say about the Bruins.

“I’m telling you guys straight up: People are underplaying how deep Boston is and how good Boston is.” said McGuire in an interview reported by WEEI. “ And the Rangers don’t match up particularly well with Boston. That’s just the reality because they don’t have the same kind of offensive depth, especially down the middle, as they have in Boston. That’s a big problem. You compound that with the Chara factor and with the [Johnny] Boychuk factor in terms of size. You’ve got some very big defensemen. Whatever offensive press you might have if you’re New York, it gets shut down pretty quick.”

It looks like the team from the coach on down has shaken off the bloopers and are ready to finish it out against the Rangers tonight.

“I think there’s certain days; I know you’re not always great at your job sometimes, right?” Coach Julien said to a reporter following Friday’s skate at TD Garden, when asked about the B’s getting the “crispness” back in their game during practice after the mistake-prone loss.Same thing with those guys. You try, right? You muscle through. And that’s what we did yesterday. I didn’t think we were good, we were ‘okay.’ In the playoffs, okay is not enough to win you some hockey games.”

“We’ve proven along in this series that we can be good and consistent. We’ve just got to be good and bounce back tomorrow.”

I’m sure tonight the Bruins will be more focused on situational awareness and it’s doubtful the bloopers of last night’s game will be repeated. Bruins look to end the Rangers season tonight at the TD Garden. No matter what happens, Tortorella’s post game interview should be worth watching.

May 23, 2013; New York, NY, USA; New York Rangers players celebrate on the ice after defeating the Boston Bruins 4-3 in overtime in game four of the second round of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports

All I can say about last night is that I must assume the hockey gods want this series to end in Boston. It certainly appeared that the referees wanted that to happen. Some poor (I am tempted to channel my inner Tortorella here.) officiating in the third caused a game to go into overtime and an overtime goal gave the New York Rangers a 4-3 win at Madison Square Garden.

To be completely fair, it wasn’t entirely the fault of the refs. The hockey gods decided to punish Tuukka Raskfor his skills in the last three games.  The Bruins were up 2-0,  and the Rangers seemed doomed. All of sudden, Tuukka Rask tripped over himself in the crease on an incoming shot by Carl Hagelin.  As Rask fell to the ice, he flailed at the slow-rolling puck, but it slid under his stick and over the goal line. That shot got a very quiet MSG fanbase excited, and seemed to bring life into an anemic Rangers squad.

“It happens to me twice a year in practice, maybe,” Rask said. “I’ve got to be more focused, I think. Just a tough mistake. It looks pretty bad on TV, I’ll bet.”

The Bruins still were playing well going into the third period. Then Zdeno Chara made a slow run behind the Bruins net not realizing that Rangers forward Derek Stepan picked his pocket and chucked the goal past an unsuspecting Rask to tie it two early in the third period.

Tyler Seguin erased some of his demons in the post-season by battling hard to catch his own rebound and drive it past Henrik Lundqvist to briefly put the Bruins back up 3-2. Then the refs decided that a sweep of the Rangers would be unforgivable. While they did get the Too Many Men on the Ice call correct (which led to a very rare power play goal by Brian Boyle), they blamed a prone Chris Kelly for a tripping call that he couldn’t have made. Then they proceeded to ignore slashing calls made against Chara and Lucic (Lucic’s stick was broken by the slash.) All in all, just a bad luck night for the Bruins.

Overtime saw some opportunities for both teams, but in the end Chris Kreider was able to get one past Tuukka Rask to give the Rangers a 4-3 win in game four.

May 23, 2013; New York, NY, USA; Boston Bruins defenseman Torey Krug (47) celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal against the New York Rangers during the second period in game four of the second round of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports

The New York Rangers claim they have new life going into the rest of the series. All they can honestly claim is that thanks to some pure dumb luck, and some missed calls by the refs, they have won one game. Game five will be played at home, and I’m sure the TD Garden crowd will remind the referees to bring their integrity to the game.