BOSTON (AP) — Derek Stepan and Kevin Hayes each scored short-handed goals, Antti Raanta made 35 saves and the surging New York Rangers beat the Boston Bruins 5-2 on Saturday night.
Pavel Buchnevich added a power-play goal, Stepan had two assists, and Michael Grabner and Nick Holden also scored for New York, which won its fourth straight game and seventh in the last eight.
David Pastrnak and Patrice Bergeron scored for the Bruins, who had won their last three games. Tuukka Rask made 19 saves, but lost for the first time after winning his first six starts.
Trailing 1-0 in the first, the Rangers tied it when Holden fired a seemingly harmless dump-in shot from the right point, but the puck appeared to hit the glove of Boston center David Krejci and dipped before going into the net.
New York made it 2-1 on Stepan’s goal late in the period as he broke in alone after taking a pass from Grabner. Rask poked the puck off his stick, but it caromed off both of the winger’s skates and slid into the net.
Seconds after Boston defenseman Torey Krug misfired at an open side of the net, Hayes scored on the end of a 3-on-1 break at 2:18 of the second, slipping a shot under Rask’s right pad.
The Rangers also had a 2-on-0 short-handed bid seconds later, but Rask turned aside the chance.
Raanta kept it a two-goal edge, making two right-pad stops on Krejci’s shots from the top of the crease late in the second.
Referee Dean Morton had to be helped off the ice in the second after taking the puck off the back of the head on clearing shot from Rangers defenseman Kevin Klein.
Klein shot the puck from the side of his team’s net into the corner, where it hit Morton. He went down to the ice before getting on his knees and being helped off by a Boston trainer. He was taken for evaluation and didn’t return.
The Bruins had moved ahead when Bergeron one-timed Brad Marchand’s pass 3:44 into the game.
NOTES: The Rangers entered the night as the only team with seven players having scored four or more goals. … Bruins RW Jimmy Hayes — brother of New York’s Kevin — was a healthy scratch. … The Rangers beat Boston 5-2 in New York on Oct. 26. … It was the first of two games in TD Garden between the clubs.
UP NEXT
Rangers: Host Winnipeg on Sunday, the first of a two-game homestand before a four-game road trip.
Bruins: Host Buffalo on Monday, the second of two straight at home.
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