New York is still rebuilding but at the moment, they seem to be making some progress under former BU head coach David Quinn. Coming into today's matchup, they had been 6-3-1 in their last 10 games and they were seeking revenge after absorbing a 7-4 Bruins blowout at Madison Square Garden back on October 27. The two Original Six teams will meet one more time in the regular season: February 16 in New York. Between Thanksgiving and the fact that they were playing their third game in four days (after winning at Montreal on Tuesday & at Ottawa on Wednesday), you can understand why the Black and Gold came out slow in their new third jersey (that is pretty sharp in my humble opinion).
The Rangers took a 1-0 lead at 14:14 of the first period as Pavel Buchnevich beat Bruins goaltender Jaroslav Halak (26 saves, 6-1-3) with a hard shot to his glove side. Tony DeAngelo and Jacob Trouba had the assists on Buchnevich's-their top line right wing-fifth goal of the season. Boston had managed to kill its first penalty of the contest (tripping on Sean Kuraly) but it might as well have counted as a power play goal since his infraction expired just five seconds before the breakthrough tally. Leading 1-0 after the opening frame, New York doubled its lead at 6:21 as Filip Chytil was able to drive right to the net and put in a juicy rebound at 6:21. Ryan Strome and Artemi Panarin (8 goals and 19 assists in his last 16 games) provided the helpers on the young Czech center's eighth goal of the season.
B's defenseman Charlie McAvoy is known for many great things that he can do on the ice but dropping the gloves usually isn't one of them. The 21-year-old did help change the momentum for his team by getting into a very rare fight (which admittedly he lost) to New York fourth line left wing/part-time defenseman Brendan Smith-former Bruin Reilly's older brother. The other main factor that helped Boston dig out of its self-inflicted hole was their penalty kill which finished an incredible 6-for-6 on the day. First, they killed a two-man advantage that lasted for 1:02 with the Rangers already up 2-0. Not long after that, the Bruins finally put one past Rangers legendary goaltender Henrik Lundqvist (24 saves, 7-5-2). It came on a fluky play-the soccer equivalent of an own goal-as Jake DeBrusk threw a shot on net that was tipped by Kuraly and hit the post before bouncing off of King Henrik who ended up knocking it in his own net with his stick. Oops! Kuraly's second goal of the season was also assisted by Brandon Carlo and suddenly, Boston only trailed by one goal (2-1) heading into the third period.
After being outshot 11-7 in the first and 11-8 in the second, the Bruins officially woke up in the third (aka winning time) as they had five more shots than the Rangers (11-6). Boston didn't wait too long to tie it up either as David Pastrnak (who else?) scored his NHL-best 24th goal of the season at 4:27. David Krejci and DeBrusk had the assists as Jake's centering pass to Krejci in front of the net somehow deflected right to Pasta who knew exactly what to do with it-firing the puck low under Lundqvist's leg pads. Cool nerd stat: Pasta and Brad Marchand both have 40+ points now, becoming the first Bruins teammates to do that in 26 games since Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito (ever heard of them?) in 1974-75. It's only the fifth time in franchise history that has happened so yes, it's kind of a big deal if you're into that type of thing.
Par Lindholm got a double-minor for high-sticking more than halfway through the third period but yet again, Boston's killers (relax, head coach Bruce Cassidy lovingly refers to them as that) survived being shorthanded that long. Charlie McAvoy (who skated a game-high 25:22) also reminded everyone that the BU-BC hatred never goes away as he crushed former Eagle Chris Kreider with an open ice hit late in regulation in Boston's defensive zone.
There was some back-and-forth action in the abbreviated extra session but Krejci's goal turned out to be the only shot on goal for either club. Halak actually started the entire sequence by getting the puck to Krejci in the neutral zone. From there, he passed back to Pastrnak who dangled by a Ranger then slid a beautiful return dish to his fellow countrymen who admitted afterwards that he basically had an open net to shoot at. His fifth goal of the season came at 1:40 and Boston's first overtime win vs. New York in almost 11 years (Phil Kessel in a shootout on Jan. 19, 2008 was surprisingly the last time) helped extend their point streak to 10 games (7-0-3). The Bruins' last regulation loss was three weeks ago (4-2 at Detroit-an unexplainable setback to a putrid opponent). The B's also improved to 2-0 in overtime this season while the Rangers fell to 2-2.
A very busy stretch continues for the Bruins next week but at least they get to stay home and be around their loved ones. They host cratering Montreal (11-9-5) who played the only game in the NHL last night and lost their sixth straight game-at the Bell Centre to New Jersey (9-11-4). They are in Philadelphia (13-7-5) tomorrow afternoon so by the time that Claude Juilien's boys get here on Sunday night (7, NESN) they could be in full panic mode (let's be serious though, I'm sure the city of Montreal is already falling down with these recent results). Boston continues to play every other day as they host the Hurricanes (15-9-1) on Tuesday (7, NESN) followed by the Blackhawks (10-9-5) on Thursday (7, NESN) and wrapping up with Colorado (14-8-2) next Saturday night (7, NESN). Got it? This lovely five-game homestand is followed by a four-game road trip so there is that. At this hour, the Bruins have the most points (41) in the whole NHL so there isn't a whole lot to complain about if you are a fan of them.
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