Slow-starting Rangers stay cool, rally with blistering 2nd, 3rd to top Bruins
This has not been the prettiest getaway in the 90 years of Rangers history, and the guys in the locker room are not hesitant to say that.
But maybe the biggest takeaway from the 5-2-0 start to this season that was padded by a 5-2 comeback win over the Bruins on Wednesday night at the Garden is that these Blueshirts have not suffered a crack in their confidence, nor have they suffered from any sense of impending doom. At least, not yet. “There is no panic in this locker room,” said a smiling Brandon Pirri, a first-year Ranger who was the statistical hero on this night, scoring once at the end of the three-goal second period and once at the start of the two-goal third that was the exclamation on the momentum change coming following a 2-0 first-period deficit that seemed like a much deeper hole than it was.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Pirri said. “We have a lot of belief in ourselves. We know we just have to focus on the next shift, work hard, and then usually good things are going to happen.
“So we just bided our time, and then our work ethic [resulted in] things going our way.”
It could have helped that the Bruins (3-4-0) were on the second leg of a back-to-back, coming off an awful 5-0 loss to the Wild on Tuesday night. They also were starting neophyte Zane McIntyre in nets, just his first NHL start after the 24year-old made his league debut in relief on Tuesday. Starter Tuukaa Rask remains sidelined with an injury.
“We just have to put some goals in, and some doubt in their mind,” defenseman Dan Girardi said. “That’s what we did.”
Girardi was the recipient of a monster hit from Boston forward David Pastrnak at 10:55 of the second period, when the Blueshirts were in the middle of their torrid comeback. As Girardi reached up to play the puck with his hand at the center line, Pastrnak’s shoulder drove right into his chin. There was a minor penalty assessed for an illegal check to the head, and after going through concussion protocol in the locker room, Girardi returned with no ill effects.
“I don’t really know it makes contact with my face at first, but it is what it is, I’m kind of vulnerable,” Girardi said. “He’s going to try to make a hit. He just hit me in the front of the face, so it wasn’t like it was the side-of-the-head hit or something. As soon as I got up, I was fine.”
That was one of six power plays the Rangers had — or, as irritated Boston coach Claude Julien said, that his team was “given.” The Rangers scored on two of them, both in the second period, the first coming from Rick Nash at 9:16 to cut the Bruins lead to 2-1 and give the Blueshirts some life.
“I think we just felt like we could turn it around,” said goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who could have been the goat after surrendering a goal to Pastrnak just 10 seconds into the game, and then a real softy on a 51foot wrist shot from Austin Czarnik at 14:44 of the first to go down, 2-0.
“We showed it to ourselves already so many times this season, so we didn’t panic,” Lundqvist said. “We believe in the things we are doing out there; we believe in our system. We believe we have enough skill to turn games around for us, and it’s huge. It’s great for our confidence.
“I’m just happy with the way we responded, with the way I responded after that start.”
After Nash’s goal, Kevin Hayes took advantage of a rattled McIntyre and banked one in off his back to tie, 2-2. Following Pirri’s two goals, rookie Jimmy Vesey netted one against his hometown team to make it 5-2 just 3:06 into the third period to seal it up.
“We don’t really want to panic at all,” Girardi said. “We just stuck with it.”