Bruins lose Pastrnak, then game in OT to Rangers, 2-1
The fight in the current Bruins’ team is more figurative than the literal kind displayed by the Lunch Pail AC gang that was honored on Saturday night at the Garden.
This year’s model did, in fact, demonstrate both brands, but the undermanned crew could only manage a point, losing 2-1 in overtime to the Rangers in a battle of the top two teams in the Eastern Conference. Vincent Trocheck scored at 2:03 in overtime to lift the New York Rangers to a 2-1 victory at the Garden on Saturday, ending a fun night with a thud for B’s fans.
It felt like more than just one of 82 games, starting with the opening ceremony. Mike Milbury came out carrying a shoe that symoblized the night in in 1979 that he and his mates climbed into the stands at Madison Square Garden. John Wensink reenacted the two hand dismissive wave he gave to the Minnesota North Stars bench. And Normand Leveille, felled by a brain hemorrhage at the start of a promising career, stood from his wheelchair to do the ceremonial puck drop for a goose bump moment.
Then the B’s and Blueshirts played a taut, competitive game that for the hometown team was low-lighted by a major penalty and game misconduct on David Pastrnak.
The B’s had taken a 1-0 lead into the third but Trocheck tied it up with a power-play goal. Still, coach Jim Montgomery was reasonably happy with the point, considering they were already down Charlie McAvoy and Pavel Zacha.
“You’re winning 1-0 and you’d like to get two points but if you look at the adversity within the game that we faced, I’m really proud of our group for the desperation we played with, the togetherness … a lot of guys are playing with great compete,” said Montgomery. “I think our resiliency shows. We’re building some good things here with a lot of people
getting minutes that normally wouldn’t have.”
Asked between the first and second period who might have fit in on that late ’70s team, Wensink answered “Trent Frederic,” a player the former Bruin coached back in St. Louis.
And almost on cue, the B’s took the first lead at 2:07 of the second on Frederic’s seventh goal of the year. Matt Grzelcyk made a nice breakout pass to Matt Poitras and he carried it through the neutral zone.
He dished it to James van Riemsdyk on the right wing while Frederic headed for the net. Van Riemsdyk flipped a backhander toward the net that went off Frederic’s skate and into goalie Igor Shesterkin. It bounced back onto Frederic’s blade and he jammed it home from the middle of the
crease.
The Rangers challenged for goalie interference but the goal was upheld. That gave the B’s a power play, but they could do nothing with it.
The B’s appeared to suffer another loss to injury when, on a 4-on-4, Poitras was checked into the boards by Erik Gustafsson, with his left shoulder taking the brunt of the hit. He writhed on the ice in some obvious pain before getting up and heading straight to the room. But Poitras would return before the period was out.
With Poitras still in the room, Frederic decided to take care of that business and a little more from the past. He had been jawing earlier in the game with Jacob Trouba, who in the first meeting had gotten away
with a two-hander to Frederic’s head and got away with a mere fine.
The fight didn’t last long. Frederic landed the first punch, Trouba swung back and then his momentum took him to the ice.
“I just tried to play hockey and obviously that was part of it,” said Frederic of the baseball swing. “I could never hit him hard enough as he hit me, I’d have to fight him 10 times to do that. That’s what’s nice about hockey. You can’t (fight) in other sports.”
The temperature was up from there, and it didn’t work in the B’s favor. With 1:50 left in the period, Pastrnak hit defenseman Ryan Lindgren from behind and Lindgren’s head went into the glass, cutting the defenseman.
Pastrnak was tagged with
a five-minute major and a game misconduct. He may also get a call from the Department of Player Safety. If it was up to Montgomery, Pastrnak will skate on it.
“Very surprised. I thought it was two minutes,” said Montgomery. “I don’t think he hits him anywhere near his numbers. I think he hits him on the front of his shoulder. And then unfortunately, he got hurt. So if there’s blood, it affects the call.”
The major was mitigated when Artemi Panarin was given a two-minute minor in the fracas, but the B’s were faced with three full minutes of kill time early in the third to league’s second ranked power play unit. With the help of Jeremy Swayman, of course, the B’s did indeed kill it off.
But the Rangers kept coming and when the B’s best penalty killer, Brandon Carlo, took an interference penalty, New York tied it up at 10:50. Mika Zibanejad fed Vincent Trocheck in the slot and Trocheck beat Swayman from about 15 feet out.
The B’s hung on for the point, but couldn’t get the second one.