Rangers start fast, win fifth in a row

No Matthews, but Maple Leafs still down slumping Wild

Jimmy Vesey scored two first-period 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 Bergeron 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. MAPLE LEAFS 4, WILD 2 >> Frederik Andersen made 35 saves to help Toronto beat Minnesota. Nazem Kadri, former Shark 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, and Devan Dubnyk stopped 15 shots. The Wild has lost three in a row to fall to 5-72.

Toronto coach Mike Babcock shifted Marleau to the middle with Matthews out. Matthews was scratched for the first time since being drafted in 2016, playing in 98 straight games including all 82 last year in his Calder Trophy winning campaign.

Toronto went the first 8:49 without a shot on net despite having a power-play opportunity only two minutes into the contest.

Brown scored an emptynetter with 30 seconds to play.