The matchup of the best two teams in the Eastern Conference lived up to the hype as the New York Rangers game against the Boston Bruins had everything you could ask for in a regular season game. The first matchup between the two teams went to overtime with the New York Rangers winning 3-2 over the Boston Bruins on a Marian Gaborik power-play goal with 3.6 seconds left in the overtime period. Tukka Rask made two great saves in Ryan Callahan and Brad Richards before Gaborik netted the game-winner, his second goal of the game, 25th goal of the season, to give the Rangers the extra point and maintain their lead in the Eastern Conference standings.
The Rangers were on the power-play after Andrew Ference was assessed a five-minute major for charging when he ran Ryan McDonagh into the boards behind New York’s net 1:50 into the extra session. McDonagh laid prone on the ice for several minutes before finally skating off the ice on his own and into the locker room. Ference will likely face discipline from Brendan Shanahan in the coming days.
New York gets another win in the final seconds, but once again they are never in that position without stellar play from Henrik Lundqvist. Lundqvist made 32 saves, including multiple of the highlight variety, to allow the team to stay in there when the Rangers were being outplayed.
Ryan Callahan got the Rangers on the board early in the second period when coming out of the box Brandon Prust found Callahan and he beat Rask far post 1:31 in. The lead did not last long as Andrew Ference tied the game at 3:28 of the second off a beautiful cross-ice feed from David Krejci that left Lundqvist defenseless.
Marian Gaborik scored his first of the game, first in seven games, late in the second when he jumped on a loose puck and fired it past Rask for a 2-1 lead. Carl Hagelin attempted a shot, but it was blocked by Dennis Seidenberg, dropping down to Gaborik’s feet and there was no hesitation to let the shot go.
The Rangers seemed poised to head into the final period with the one goal lead, but Adam McQuaid had other ideas when he tied the game with 49 seconds left in the second. McQuaid fired from the right faceoff circle having the puck deflect off Brian Boyle’s stick and over the shoulder of Lundqvist.
- Great to see the
Rangers bigger offensive players carry the load in a big game with Gaborik,
Callahan and Richards being in on the winning goal.
- Ryan Callahan
played his best game in some time being impactful all over the ice and adding
some offense back in.
- Gaborik going to the front of the net is always the key to offense and today he got back to doing that more than he has in the past few weeks resulting in both his goals.
