Boston Bruins Recap: Bruins Oust Rangers

The Boston Bruins continued their road trip at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night against the New York Rangers where they hoped to continue their 7-game winning streak against one of the best teams in the league.

Old Time Rivals

The First period set the table for an exciting tilt between two great teams who will see each other two more times. The game was pretty physical with both teams hitting everyone all over the ice. Ryan Lindgren put a big hit on David Pastrnak, who later returned the favor garnering an interference call to put the Bruins on the penalty kill early in the first.  The Bruins were able to kill their twentieth straight penalty to bring their league-leading penalty kill percentage to 94.6%.  Pastrnak took his frustration and turned it into a goal to put the Bruins up 1-0. The first period ended with the Rangers taking 5 shots, their lowest of the season in any single period.

The second period was just as exciting as the first. The Rangers found their game and were able to tie up the score on a goal from Jimmy Vesey to make the score 1-1. The Rangers were able to control the pace of the game for the majority of the period. The second period saw a revolving door of players in each penalty box. The Bruins and Rangers took turns killing off penalties and each powerplay unit couldn’t get much going. There was a double fight when Trent Frederic took a hit from Braden Schneider. AJ Greer took exception to the hit and then Frederic found a partner in Barclay Goodrow. The second period ended in a draw setting up an amazing ending to a great game.

The third period looked like it was gonna be an absolute shootout. The Bruins scored to take a 2-1 lead with a goal from Charlie Coyle on a cross-crease pass from Hampus Lindholm. The Rangers tied the game 48 seconds later with Adam Fox’s 3rd goal of the season. Trent Frederic was able to take the lead back about 3 minutes later with a shot from the left faceoff dot that beat Igor Shesterkin for his 3rd goal of the season. Jake DeBrusk netted his fourth goal of the season on a one-timer from Pavel Zacha. Hampus Lindholm was able to put the final nail in the coffin for New York with an empty-net goal from the other side of the ice. The third was more of the Bruins controlling the pace, only allowing the Rangers to get 2 shots on goal in the first 15 minutes of the period. The Bruins seemed to find ways to keep the puck in the offensive zone. Whether it’s an interception on a clearing pass, poking the puck in off a defender’s stick, or just getting in on a clean entry the puck seemed to always be in New York’s zone. The onslaught of scoring showed just how much the Bruins were pushing the pace.

Hot Bru

The Bruins snap the Rangers 3-game winning streak and improve their record to 10-1-0 to become the first team to 10 wins. Boston keeps their streak alive at 7 games in a row to stay at the top of the league standings.

Goaltender Linus Ullmark kept his fire going after a shaky game on Tuesday against Pittsburgh where he somehow got the win despite giving up 5 goals in just the first 2 periods of play. Thursday night’s win extends Ullmarks personal win streak to tie the franchise record at 8-0-0 the first goalie to do it since Tim Thomas in 2010-2011. Jim Montgomery mentioned that he is leaning toward Ullmark against Toronto on Saturday where the Bruins will look to win their 8th straight.

David Pastrnak scored his 8th goal of the year to make his point total to 19 for the season. IN 11 GAMES. If the Bruins don’t pay this man soon he might not give them the chance.

The Bruins will travel to Toronto to take on the Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena where they will face Auston Matthews for the first time this season. The Leafs are currently 5-4-2 and are 5th in the division. Nothing to scoff at this Maple Leafs team is known for its offensive firepower the Bruins are gonna have to bring their top-tier defense if they want to walk out with a win.