Vesey and Rangers beat Bruins for 5th straight win
NEW YORK » Jimmy Vesey scored two firstperiod goals 29 seconds apart, Henrik Lundqvist made 31 saves and the New York Rangers beat the Boston Bruins 4-2 on Wednesday night for their fifth straight win.
Pavel Buchnevich and Rick Nash also scored for the resurgent Rangers, who improved to 8-7-2 despite losing seven of their first eight games.
David Pastrnak and Patrice had the goals for Boston.
The Rangers came out strong against their old rivals, outshooting the Bruins 16-7 in the opening period and scoring three times. The Bruins had the better of play in the scoreless second, with a 13-8 shots advantage.
New York led 3-1 heading into the third period before Bergeron cut the margin to one at 6:44 with his third goal of the season. Lundqvist was able to hold off the Bruins before Nash scored into an empty net with 7.7 seconds left.
Buchnevich opened the scoring at 9:53 of the first with his seventh of the season, but Pastrnak quickly tied it at 10:14. Pastrnak’s team-leading ninth goal was assisted by Bergeron and rookie Anders Bjork.
Vesey, who played four years at Harvard, Bergeron then jammed a loose puck past Bruins netminder Tuukka Rask at 14:41, with assists from Buchnevich and Mika Zibanejad, to put the Rangers ahead 2-1. MAPLE LEAFS 4, WILD 2» Frederik Andersen made 35 saves to help Toronto beat Minnesota.
Nazem Kadri, Patrick Marleau, Connor Carrick and Connor Brown scored for Toronto. Playing with star center Auston Matthews out day to day with an upperbody injury, Toronto improved to 10-7-0.
Jason Zucker scored twice for Minnesota.