The Rangers are for real & their 5-2 win over the Bruins proves it

About the game

The Rangers made their awful start even worse by taking penalties.  During the intermission, Mark Messier joked that the team showed its youth as they were still hung over from Thanksgiving. It certainly appeared that they weren’t ready to play and they weren’t helped by two consecutive penalties that included 10 seconds of five-on-three play. Just as Adam Fox exited the penalty box, Jacob Trouba lost the puck in the defensive zone and Craig Smith walked in a beat  Igor Shesterkin.

The Rangers  had to consider themselves lucky that they trailed only 1-0 after 15 minutes and they had Shesterkin to thank as he made numerous difficult saves.  In the first period the Bruins had 25 shot attempts to the Rangers nine including 11 scoring chances with four of them high danger shots.

The Rangers sent the Bruins to the locker room shaking their heads when Ryan Strome scored with just six seconds left on a great feed from Panarin after Hunt beat the Bruins to the puck.

Patrice Bergeron gave Boston the lead seven minutes into the second period.  After Barclay Goodrow was tossed from the faceoff circle, Kevin Rooney lost the draw and there was a defensive breakdown that left Bergeron all alone in front of the net and he put it  past Shesterkin.

Then it was Dryden Hunt’s turn to be the hero as he had a wide open net to bury the puck in off the rebound of a Ryan Lindgren point shot.

With the score 2-2 going into the third period, it was anyone’s game, but the Rangers decided that they wanted to own it. With 8:25 left in the period it was a rush by Julien Gauthier who had just come off the bench that led to a nice goal by Artemi Panarin.

Ryan Strome carried the puck into the Bruins’ zone and got it to Gauthier who used his speed to feed Panarin who was streaking to the net.

Five minutes later, with the Bruins buzzing, it was Gauthier again who carried the puck into the Boston zone.  He made the pass to Alexis Lafrenière who buried it for his fifth goal.

The Bruins pulled goalie Jeremy Swayman with 2:26 left, but couldn’t get a shot on goal and the game ended with a scrum after Charlie McAvoy took Kevin Rooney down with a knee and Artemi Panarin and Brad Marchand both getting misconducts for jawing at each other.

Panarin actually threw his glove at the Bruins’ pest from the Rangers’ bench.

Trouba cleared the puck and it went into the net for a final score of 5-2.

Here’s a video recap of the game.