Bruins Rally To Tie Rangers

It was a comeback night for the Boston Bruins, and a comedown night for the New York Rangers.

Dmitri Khristich scored with 1:02 remaining in the third period to lead the Bruins to a 3-3 tie against the Rangers on Friday night.

"To pull out a point like that in the last minute is huge," said Bruins goaltender Byron Dafoe. "Especially on the road, it gives us extra confidence."

Don Sweeney intercepted a clearing pass from Ulf Samuelsson and flipped a shot from the side boards that Khristich redirected with his stick past Rangers goaltender Mike Richter for his seventh goal.

"I was covering the short side," Richter said. "It looked like it slowed down a lot in front. I think it went in off of Khristich's leg or off his stick."

The goal was dispiriting to the Rangers.

"Ties are always devastating when you're ahead," said New York's Wayne Gretzky, who notched a pair of assists. "It was a tough tie for us, no question about it."

Steve Heinze took advantage of a turnover by Niklas Sundstrom to pull the Bruins within 3-2 with his sixth goal of the season at 13:31 of the third period.

John MacLean scored a pair of goals for the Rangers.

"It was that type of game, just back and forth," Boston coach Pat Burns said as the Bruins extended their unbeaten streak to four (2-0-2).

With New York trailing 1-0 and on a power play, MacLean redirected a point shot by Brian Leetch past Dafoe at 13:23 of the second period for his fifth goal. Then, at 16:31, Leetch intercepted an errant Bruins clearing pass, sent the puck to MacLean in the high slot and MacLean shot it over Dafoe's glove to put the Rangers ahead 2-1.

Sundstrom gave the Rangers a 3-1 lead at 6:36 of the third period when he deflected a right-point blast from Alexei Kovalev past Dafoe for his third goal. Gretzky set up the play with a seeing-eye cross-ice pass.

Boston took a 1-0 lead at 16:01 of the first period on a power-play goal from Kyle McLaren. Richter made a pad save on a blistering point shot from Ray Bourque, but McLaren converted the rebound for his first goal of the season.

Steve Heinze took advantage of a turnover by Sundstrom to pull Boston within 3-2 with his sixth at 13:31 of the third period.

Before the game, the Rangers presented MacLean with an award for playing in his 1,000th NHL game last Wednesday in Florida. MacLean is the 129th player to reach that milestone.

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