Maybe the star-studded New York Rangers will get it together between now and the end of the regular season. And, to be fair, they were undermanned on Saturday.
But the highly-skilled Blueshirts could simply not hang with the Bruins for three periods in a Saturday matinee at the Garden. The B’s wore the Rangers down in the third period, scoring a couple of goals to pull away for a 4-2 victory for their 10th straight victory.
The Rangers were missing K’Andre Miller (suspension) and Ryan Lindgren (shoulder) and, because of their cap situation, they were forced to play with 16 skaters (11 forwards, five defensemen). The Blueshirts’ skill was evident at times, and when the puck is on the stick of Patrick Kane or Vladimir Tarasenko or Artemi Panarin, it’s tough to look away. But the Rangers’ high-powered veterans were held in check.
Still, coach Jim Montgomery wasn’t thrilled with the first 40 minutes. The ABC cameras caught Montgomery in the second intermission demanding “Bruins hockey” in the third period. As usual, his players delivered.
“We got to it,” said Montgomery. “I thought we played real intelligently in the third. The first two periods, for whatever reason, our mental execution, us reading plays and making plays, with or without the puck, was a little slow. It’s understandable. It’s our sixth game in nine and half days with a lot of travel. It wears on you. We didn’t mentally start with the 1 o’clock start time today.”
The 49-8-5 B’s finished the afternoon with a 19-point lead on the second-place Maple Leafs (Toronto was playing Saturday night) for the Atlantic Division and a 15-point lead over Carolina for the Presidents’ Trophy. The motivation they’ll find for the next six weeks will have to come from within. And with some early turnovers, the coaching staff has some ammunition.
“There’s areas of our game that have to improve in order to be better in the playoffs,” said Montgomery. “You can get away with a lot of turnovers, you can get away with giving up odd-man rushes when you’re playing non-playoff teams. But when you’re playing playoff teams, you can’t get away with it.”
As usual, Linus Ullmark was the human concealer for any blemishes in the B’s game. He stopped 24 shots, including a few Grade A stops in the first 40 minutes. Then the Rangers came into the third period down by just a goal, but they managed just three shots on net in the final period.
“From my perspective at least, we did the right things at the right time,” said Ullmark. “That’s how we’ve been doing it all year long and we’re going to keep doing it.”
The Bruins took a 2-1 lead into the third and, after failing extend the lead on two early power plays in the third, Patrice Bergeron made it 3-1 with 7:04 left in regulation. Brad Marchand carried the puck behind the net with Adam Fox on his hip before dishing to Bergeron for his familiar snap shot for the captain’s 23rd.
Then David Pastrnak just about ended it with his 44th goal of the season with 3:20 left on a one-timer off a Charlie McAvoy feed, putting “Dirty Water” as the next tune up in the Garden audio shuffle. Alexis Lafreniere added his second of the game with 1:26, but the Rangers were toast at that point.
The Bruins took a 1-0 lead in an entertaining first period that had a little extra buzz, given all the major moves both teams and made the lofty aspirations both teams possess.
The air got even more charged when, on a delayed Ranger penalty, Jacob Trouba stepped up and made one of his trademark opportunistic hits on Tomas Nosek. The clubs gathered in the middle of the ice for some spirited pushing and shoving before Derek Forbort squared off in a bout with Jimmy Vesey that the B’s defenseman ended quickly.
The B’s took the lead at 18:07 on a play that was beautiful in its simplicity. Tyler Bertuzzi, making his Bruin debut, flipped the puck into the right corner from just outside the left point and Trent Frederic went into to fetch. After protecting, Frederic dished it back to Bertuzzi behind the net and the former Red Wing made a pretty pass out front to Charlie Coyle for the goal. It was Coyle’s 12th of the year and first in 13 games.
The B’s started the second period on the penalty kill after Bertuzzi took a slashing call late in the first, but the B’s PK tandem of Coyle and Nosek pushed it to 2-0 just 30 seconds into the period. After the B’s first frontal assault was turned away, Nosek forced a turnover from Fox, pushing the puck up to Coyle along the right boards. Coyle returned the puck to Nosek, who made a nifty backhand-forehand-backhand move for his fifth of the year, waving to his wife and two children in the stands.
“It was kind of my thank you to my wife … for her that she gave up everything to chase my dream with me,” said Nosek.
But the Rangers got one back when Marchand was called for interference off an offensive zone faceoff. The B’s were doing a solid job of killing this one off, too, but with the man-up time winding down, Trouba’s shot was deflected by Lafreniere and off the post and in at 7:03.
That’s how it stayed though 40 minutes and the Rangers’ skill started to rise to the surface as the second period wore on.
But, as Montgomery pleaded, the time was nigh for some Bruins’ hockey — and yet another victory in this magical hockey season.