After Monday's great comeback the Bruins were back at it hosting the New York Rangers in game one of the second round Thursday evening. Could Boston get enough shots past King Henry to take game one at home and take a 1-0 lead over the Rangers? Or would the Bruins put themselves in position to lose game one at home? It is hard to believe but these two original six teams have not met in the playoffs in 40 years since they squared off in 1973. The game started out in typical grind out fashion as the Bruins and Rangers skated to a 0-0 tie in the first period. The Ranger's might have thought they had an advantage on the Bruins in game one as three of Boston's top six defensemen were out with injuries which left three rookies to play major minutes on Boston's blue line. One Bruins defensemen who was healthy was the caption Zdeno Chara. Chara broke the scoring drought at 12:23 of the second period as his second goal of the playoffs gave Boston a 1-0 lead. It looked like the Bruins were going to take their 1-0 lead into the third period until the Rangers tied the game at 1-1 with just two seconds left in the second period on a goal by Ryan McDonagh.
The Rangers appeared to have the momentum going into the third period. New York started the third period just like they ended the second period by sneaking a second consecutive shot past Bruin's Goalie Tuukka Rask on a shot by Derek Stepan to give the Rangers a 2-1 third period lead. With Goalie Henrik Lundqvist playing an amazing game in net it looked as if the Rangers were on their way to stealing a game one victory on the road. Once again the comeback kids from Boston showed a toughness by not giving up in this game. It was Rookie defensemen Torey Krug who tied the game for Boston. The rookie's goal tied the game at 2-2 and sent the Bruins to a second consecutive overtime game. Ranger's goalie Henrik Lundqvist stopped 45 of his first 47 shots and looked sharp. However, the Bruins looked more aggressive than usual on offense and got multiple shots on goal in the end of the third period and beginning of OT. Boston left their fans holding their collective breaths as shot after shot clanged of off the post. Finally 2nd line forward Brad Marchand shot the 48 shot of the game on Lundqvist which snuck by the all world goalie to give Boston a 3-2 game one overtime victory. Tuukka Rask 33 of the 35 shots he faced to help give the Bruins the game one win. Defensemen Torey Krug, who was making his playoff debut, was excited to contribute to the victory. "It was amazing," Krug said. "I've said before that my main goal was to come in here and try to help the team win, and I was fortunate enough to do that." Boston will host game two at the TD Garden this Sunday at 3pm. The Game will be broadcasted on NBC. -Joe Passarelli |
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