Rangers Top Bruins 5-2 To Win Fourth Straight
The New York Rangers have now made it four wins in a row, after they defeated the Boston Bruins by a final score of 5-2. Antti Raanta was given the start tonight, and boy did he ever deliver once again for the Rangers. He improved to 3-0-0 on the season, and turned away 30 shots in route to the victory. Pavel Buchnevich also picked up his first career NHL goal this evening, after having a boatload of scoring chances thus far.
In terms of overall play, the Rangers didn’t have their most complete game but they made up for it on the scoreboard. Their penalty killing was absolutely amazing tonight, and came away with two shorthanded goals to help their case.
Unfortunately, the slow start by the Rangers wound up costing them, and the Bruins took the early advantage. Brad Marchand was able to strip the puck from Ryan McDonagh on the reverse play, and quickly fed the puck out to Patrice Bergeron. Derek Stepan lost Bergeron cutting to the net, and slipped the puck under Raanta to make it a 1-0 game.
It took the Rangers a little while to get their legs going, but once they did, they were able to leap right back into the game. With about five minutes remaining in the period, Nick Holden tossed a routine shot on net, which Tuukka Rask misread, and the puck flew into the net. After watching the replay, the puck appeared to deflect off of David Krejci’s stick before ending up in the back of the net.
A couple minutes later, the Rangers picked up their first shorthanded goal on the night after Michael Grabner and Derek Stepan broke in on a 2-on-1. Grabner put the puck right on Stepan’s tape, but he wound up bobbling the puck, and losing it as it went on net. Fortunately, Rask was unable to make a play on the loose puck, and it slipped past him to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead.
Just two minutes into the second period, the Rangers scored yet another shorthanded goal, this time coming from Kevin Hayes. The Bruins were absolutely brutal with the man-advantage tonight, and they lost Hayes in transition. Marc Staal was able to make the quick outlet pass, and with plenty of time to work with, Hayes ripped a shot through Rask’s five-hole.
Heading into the third period, the Rangers had plenty relatively decent up until this point, but they began to let up a bit in the third period. With fatigue starting to kick in, the Rangers relied on Antti Raanta for much of the third period, and he delivered big time.
He was able to keep the Bruins in check until the Rangers found their game a bit, which didn’t come until the second half of the period. At the 13:37 mark of the third period, Pavel Buchnevich extended the Rangers lead to 4-1 after absolutely ripping a shot over Rask’s shoulder coming off a pass from Derek Stepan. That would mark his first career NHL goal, and he certainty displayed his excitement with a massive fist pump.
The Bruins were able to respond shortly after that as David Pastrnak deflected home Riley Nash’s shot from up top, and brought he Bruins back within a pair goals. With under four minutes left in regulation, Michael Grabner closed out the scoring and registered his team-leading seventh goal to make it a 5-2 game.
This win now marks the Rangers fourth straight win, and brings them to 9-3-0 on the season. The Rangers will be right back in action tomorrow night as they welcome the Winnipeg Jets to Madison Square Garden.
Thoughts?