Shorthanded Rangers Fall To Bruins 4-2

The New York Rangers hobbled into TD Garden to face the Boston Bruins and although a strong effort, the boys in blue fell short, losing 4-2 and helped extend Boston’s win streak to ten games. Starting in net for the shorthanded Rangers was Igor Shesterkin, who stopped 20 out of 24 shots, while Linus Ullmark, saving 24, started in net for Boston. Due to league rules, the Rangers were forced to play shorthanded once again, having Ryan Lindgren, K’Andre Miller and Tyler Motte out of the lineup.

Charlie Coyle, who had a goal and an assist, put the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 18:07 of the first period. Trent Frederic, who went into the corner , backhanded it to newly acquired Tyler Bertuzzi, who then passed to Coyle at the net front, where he shot the puck past Shesterkin’s five-hole. After a scoreless first from New York, the Rangers started the second on the power play but that momentum didn’t last for long.

Tomas Nosek made it 2-0 with a short-handed goal just 30 seconds into the second period. Nosek backhanded a pass from Charlie Coyle, who took advantage of a Rangers turnover. New York wouldn’t stay off the board for long as Alexis Lafrenière cut it to 2-1 with a power-play goal at 7:03 of the period, deflecting Jacob Trouba’s point shot past Ullmark. Initially, the referees initially let play continue, thinking it hit off the outside crossbar but a review confirmed the goal shortly after.

Bruins center Patrice Bergeron made it 3-1 at 12:56 of the third period with a quick wrister near the right face-off circle, and shortly after, David Pastrnak made it 4-1 on a one-timer from the left faceoff circle at 16:40. Lafrenière would hit the scoresheet again as he scored from the right side at a tough angle at 18:34 for the 4-2 final score.

New York would keep up with the Bruins for most of this contest but the wheels would slightly fall apart in the the third period as it seemed like the team lost their legs. Playing shorthanded along with every defenseman notching over 20 plus minutes on ice, the group didn’t have enough to hold off a very strong Boston offense. Adding to that, Artemi Panarin and newly acquired forward Patrick Kane seemed to be forcing pucks though lanes, and Rangers coach Gerard Gallant made a note of this in his post game comments.

These shorthanded Rangers will get a much needed four days rest and then head up to Montreal to play the Canadiens on March 9th, at 7pm.