The Boston Bruins may have worn their Reverse Retro jerseys on Saturday, but it was a “reverse retro” scoreboard as the New York Rangers shutout the Bruins, 4-0, Saturday afternoon at TD Garden after having been shutout by Boston, 4-0, on Thursday night.
New York netminder, Keith Kinkaid (2-0-1, 1.53 goals-against average, .933 save percentage in four games played), stopped all 18 shots that he faced en route to his first shutout of the season (the eighth overall shutout of his National Hockey League career).
B’s goaltender, Jaroslav Halak (6-3-2, 2.07 GAA, .922 SV% in 11 games played) turned aside 29 out of 33 shots against for an .879 SV% in the loss.
The Bruins dropped to 14-7-4 (32 points) on the season, but remained in 4th place in the MassMutual NHL East Division, while the Rangers improved to 11-12-3 (25 points) and remain in command of 6th place in the division.
Boston also fell to 4-2-0 against New York this season as a result of the loss.
The Bruins were without the services of Ondrej Kase (upper body), Kevan Miller (right knee), Jeremy Lauzon (fractured left hand), Brandon Carlo (upper body), Tuukka Rask (lower body), Zach Senyshyn (upper body) and Jake DeBrusk (COVID protocol) on Saturday.
Miller began skating this week and is likely to travel with the club on their upcoming four-game road trip, while Carlo is “coming around” according to B’s head coach, Bruce Cassidy, but unsure if he’ll travel.
Senyshyn made his season debut with Boston on Thursday, sustained an injury against the Rangers and is expected to miss some time.
Meanwhile, DeBrusk became just the third Bruin to enter COVID protocol this season on Saturday and missed the afternoon’s action as a result. He may travel on the team’s road trip.
Jeremy Swayman, Greg McKegg and Anton Blidh were recalled from the Providence Bruins (AHL) and assigned to the taxi squad in the meantime.
As a result of Boston’s long list of injuries, Cassidy made a few adjustments to his lineup, notably returning Nick Ritchie to the left side of David Krejci on the second line with DeBrusk out of the lineup, while moving Charlie Coyle to Krejci’s right wing.
Jack Studnicka took over Coyle’s role as the third line center with Anders Bjork rejoining the lineup as the left wing and Craig Smith as the third line right wing.
Meanwhile, Trent Frederic centered the fourth line with Sean Kuraly at his left and Chris Wagner at his right side.
Cassidy made no changes to his defensive pairings, while Senyshyn, Carlo, John Moore, Kase, Rask, Lauzon, Miller, Swayman, McKegg, Steven Kampfer and Blidh were all out of the lineup due to being injured and/or being a healthy scratch/taxi squad member.
Artemi Panarin returned to the lineup for New York for the first time since his personal leave of absence.
Early in the action, K’Andre Miller (2) wired a wrist shot from the point after a faceoff in the attacking zone over Halak’s blocker side, off the post and into the twine to give the Rangers a, 1-0, lead at 3:06 of the first period.
Pavel Buchnevich (14) and Mika Zibanejad (7) had the assists on Miller’s goal.
Moments later, Brendan Smith was penalized for holding and presented Boston with their first power play opportunity of the afternoon at 7:41.
The Bruins did not convert on the ensuing skater advantage.
Shortly after making the kill, New York went on the power play thanks to Bjork catching Kevin Rooney with a high stick at 11:16, but the Blue Shirts failed to convert on the resulting advantage.
Late in the period, Jakub Zboril tripped Chris Kreider at 14:09 and the Rangers went back on the power play, but it was short lived since Alexis Lafrenière hooked Urho Vaakanainen at 15:24.
The two clubs went at it 4-on-4 for 46 seconds before Boston had an abbreviated 5-on-4 power play, but neither team could muster anything on the special teams play.
Entering the first intermission, New York led, 1-0, on the scoreboard and, 10-6, in shots on goal.
The Rangers also held the advantage in takeaways (3-0) and giveaways (6-2), while the Bruins led in blocked shots (4-3) and hits (8-7).
Both teams were 50-50 in faceoff win percentage and 0/2 on the power play.
Less than a minute into the middle frame, Brendan Lemieux checked Frederic from behind by the bench, whereby Boston’s bench door swung open and Frederic went awkwardly into the boards in the open doorway.
Lemieux received a minor for boarding 53 seconds into the second period, but the Bruins weren’t able to capitalize on their early skater advantage on a fresh sheet of ice.
About five minutes later, Kreider (14) was unguarded as he recevied a pass from Zibanejad through the low slot and riffled a one-timer past Halak’s blocker on the short side to give New York a two-goal lead.
Zibanejad (8) and Jacob Trouba (5) recorded the assists on Kreider’s goal as the Rangers led, 2-0, at 5:42 of the second period– snapping Boston’s streak of allowing one goal or fewer in their previous six games in the process.
About a minute later, Brad Marchand caught Lafrenière with a high-stick and received a minor infraction as a result at 6:47.
The Blue Shirts were not able to capitalize on the scoreboard while one of Boston’s best penalty killers was in the box.
Midway through the period, Rangers defender, Adam Fox, hooked Bruins forward, David Pastrnak and was sent to the sin bin at 10:19.
Boston did not score on the resulting power play.
Through 40 minutes of action on Saturday afternoon, the Rangers led, 2-0, on the scoreboard and, 21-11, in shots on goal, including an, 11-5, advantage in the second period alone.
New York held the advantage in takeaways (5-3) and giveaways (8-3), while Boston led in blocked shots (10-6), hits (20-14) and faceoff win% (56-44).
The Rangers were 0/3 and the Bruins were 0/4 on the power play heading into the second intermission.
Shortly after puck drop on the third period, Ryan Lindgren was penalized for holding after he tried to clothesline Marchand with an outstretched arm nine seconds into the third period.
Once again, however, the Bruins did not muster anything on the resulting power play.
Patrice Bergeron tangled up with Zibanejad behind Boston’s own net and was assessed an interference minor at 4:25, but the Rangers couldn’t get anything going on the ensuing skater advantage.
Almost midway through the final frame, Ryan Strome (10) received a tape-to-tape pass from Panarin through the low slot for a one-timer goal while bending on one knee.
Panarin (14) and Colin Blackwell (4) notched the assists as New York took a, 3-0, lead at 8:03 of the third period.
Moments later, while frustrated with a lack of effort all afternoon, Marchand slashed Miller and was sent to the box at 12:30.
Though the Rangers didn’t score on the ensuing advantage, New York capitalized on their utter dominance of the Bruins moments later as Buchnevich (8) flipped a shot under Halak’s glove on a loose puck sent forth into the slot by Kreider to his Rangers teammate.
Kreider (5) tallied the only assist on Buchnevich’s goal as the Blue Shirts took a commanding, 4-0, lead over the B’s at 16:12.
Frederic and Lemieux had one more exchange at 18:47, after the two players originally exchanged words during the warmup prior to any action on Saturday. Both skaters were sent off to the showers with an early exit and misconducts.
At the final horn, the Rangers completed their, 4-0, shutout over Boston and finished the game leading in shots on goal, 33-18, including a, 12-7, advantage in the third period alone.
Saturday’s effort marked the fewest shots on goal for the Bruins this season, while New York finished the afternoon leading in giveaways (10-5) and Boston held the advantage in blocked shots (15-13), hits (24-23) and faceoff win% (58-42).
Both teams finished 0/5 on the power play.
The B’s fell to 4-5-2 (1-3-0 at home) when allowing the game’s first goal this season, while the Rangers improved to 8-4-1 (4-4-0 on the road) when scoring the game’s first goal in 2020-21.
Boston also fell to 2-4-2 (0-1-0 at home) when trailing after one period and 2-3-1 (1-2-0 at home) when trailing after two periods this season, while New York improved to 7-2-1 (3-2-0 on the road) when leading after the first period and 9-1-2 (5-1-1 on the road) when leading after 40 minutes this season.
The Bruins begin a four-game road trip with a pair of matchups against the Pittsburgh Penguins on March 15th and 16th before venturing north to face the Buffalo Sabres on March 18th and 20th.
Boston’s next home game will be on March 23rd against the New York Islanders and will be the first time this season that TD Garden will host fans (12% capacity), as well as the first men’s North American professional sport in Massachusetts to feature fans during the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic.
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