Rangers’ coach David Quinn and former Bruins enforcer Adam Mcquaid made their emotional return to Boston, and in so, the Rangers won their third straight game. Mika Zibanejad and Filip Chytil scored in consecutive games and Mats Zuccarello extended his 5 game point streak as the Rangers downed Patrice Bergeron and the Bruins by a score of 3-2. Henrik Lundqvist made 29 saves and the Blueshirts went 5/5 on the penalty kill.
In addition, Hank is now in sole possession for sixth place in the all time wins column.
A clearly proud Lundqvist said, “I’m really happy for many reasons…”
Coach Quinn offered his thoughts on the current state of the squad; “I’m really happy for our guys.
The Rangers were able to escape the first period tied at one due to their tremendous play with the man down—six minutes in total. The B’s who are second in the league on the powerplay, were unable to convert on a minor and a four minute power play. With under three minutes to go in the frame, Bruins’ Danton Heinen took a nice centering feed from Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson and slammed the puck home. Interestingly enough, Forsbacka Karlsson played for Boston University under David Quinn. TD Garden would quiet down though as just seconds later, Filip Chytil netted a nearly identical goal to the one he scored against the Hawks. The Czech forward drove hard to the net off the right wing and chipped the puck over Tuukka Rask. Unfortunately, on the play, the Bruins’ netminder was smashed into and forced out of the game. He has been diagnosed with a concussion and is out indefinitely.
The middle frame was a sloppy one for both teams with three penalties and a mere thirteen shots, but the Blueshirts’ first line was able to light the lamp for the lone goal of the period. 5:22 in, Patrice Bergeron, one of the league’s premier faceoff men, lost a key draw to Mats Zuccarello and a point shot from Brady Skjei was tipped in the net by Mika Zibanejad.
Seemingly every time the puck was on a players tape, another couple of players would be in the middle of a scrum away from the puck throughout the third period. Physicality was front and center and that may have proved to be the deciding factor in New York’s victory. Before any of this chaos occured, only 3:22 in, a misplay by Henrik Lundqvist in back of his net led to Brad Marchand potting his 19th goal of the season as all he had to do was place his shot in the wide open net. This is not the first time and definitely not the last in which we have seen Hank stumble with the puck. Luckily for the Blueshirts, Boston’s captain Zdeno Chara took a foolish penalty just prior to the midway mark and gave the Rangers a glorious opportunity. Mika Zibanejad would be the man to break the ice as he sniped a puck through traffic and past Jaroslav Halak. Halak was taking over for the injured Rask.
In the concluding minutes, the Bruins tried to stir up the crowd with some questionable hits, but Adam Mcquaid has no business in that and absolutely annihilated Chris Wagner in a heavyweight fight.
The Blueshirts now have 10 days off due to the All Star Break. Lundqvist will be representing the Rangers in San Jose this Friday and Saturday for the Metro Division. The Boys in Blue will return to action Jan. 29 against the Flyers.
[Zibanejad]