Marchand, Bergeron Lead Bruins To Victory Over Rangers
NEW YORK (AP) — Even though they trailed after one period, the Boston Bruins weren't too worried. They knew they were playing well and the scoring would come.
And it sure did.
Brad Marchand had two goals and three assists, the Boston Bruins scored four times in the second period and went on to beat the New York Rangers 7-4 on Sunday night.
"We did dominate that period," Marchand said of the first period that ended with the Rangers leading 1-0 despite Boston holding a 10-7 edge on shots. "They had some shots on the power play but other than that, they didn't have much. ... We knew if we continued to play the same way we were going to break out, and we did."
Patrice Bergeron scored three goals for his fifth regular-season hat trick, and Charlie Coyle and Zdeno Chara each had a goal and an assist to help the Bruins win for the eighth time in 11 games (8-1-2) this season.
David Pastrnak, who leads Boston with 11 goals, had five assists — marking just the second time in the last nine games he didn't score a goal.
"(He's) always talking, communicating, wants to create plays, change it and come up with different faceoff plays," Bergeron said. "He's obviously a very smart player. He's got that instinct. ... He wants results, and when he works like that, he's getting it."
Jaroslav Halak stopped 25 shots as Boston earned a point for the seventh straight game (5-0-2).
Michael Haley, Pavel Buchnevich, Chris Kreider and Brady Skjei scored for the Rangers, who lost for the sixth time in seven games (1-5-1). Henrik Lundqvist had 27 saves before being pulled after two periods. Alexandar Georgiev finished with nine saves in the third.
"It's hard to figure out right now," Lundqvist said of the Rangers' struggles. "We had a 1-0 lead after the first. ... We came out in the second and we weren't even close."
The Bruins took control of the game in the second period. Pastrnak charged the net with the puck from the left side, and made contact with Lundqvist. Bergeron followed and put the puck in for his third of the season 11 seconds into the period. The goal was confirmed after a video review.
Marchand put Boston ahead 57 seconds later. He got the puck in front of the net, made a backhand-forehand move before putting a backhander past Lundqvist.
"Getting the quick two goals at the start of the second kind of got us going after that," Bergeron said.
Coyle made it 3-1 as he got a pass across the front of the net from Charlie McAvoy and put the puck top shelf for his first at 9:27.
Marchand got his second of the night with 7:51 left in the middle period, taking a pass from Coyle and whipping it past Lundqvist from the right side for his seventh.
Boston finished with a 21-5 advantage on shots in the second period, and 31-12 over 40 minutes.
"A lot happened in second period we need to clean up and learn from," New York defenseman Marc Staal said.
Chara made it 5-1 as he beat Georgiev with a slap shot from the blue line just 43 seconds into the third on the first shot the Rangers' backup goalie faced.
Buchnevich pulled the Rangers back within three at 8:15 with his second of the season, but Bergeron's second of the night and fourth of the season restored Boston's four-goal lead with 8:21 left.
Kreider scored on a rebound with 1:59 left, and Skjei pulled the Rangers within two just 21 seconds later, but Bergeron's empty-netter with 45 second left capped the scoring.
The Bruins controlled play for the opening half of the first period, outshooting the Rangers 6-0. Each team had a power play during that stretch.
The Rangers got on the board on their first scoring chance. Halak stopped Brendan Smith's shot from the left side — New York's first shot on goal — but Haley charged in and knocked in the rebound with 9:41 left in the first. It was Haley's first goal since signing with the Rangers on Oct. 1.
NOTES: Marchand extended his point streak to 10 games, with seven goals and 12 assists in the stretch. He also has an assist in nine straight games. ... Pastrnak extended his point streak to nine games with 12 assists and 23 points in that stretch. ... The teams face each other 2 more times: Nov. 29 at Boston, and Feb. 16 back in New York. ... This was the Rangers' 2,000th home game at current Madison Square Garden, which opened on Feb. 11, 1968. ... Rangers C Mika Zibanejad skated in his 500th career game. He played 6:31 in the first period before leaving after taking a hit from Bergeron in the corner. He did not return. ... Buchnevich has four goals and eight points in eight career games against the Bruins.
UP NEXT:
Bruins: Host San Jose on Tuesday night to open three-game homestand.
Rangers: Host Tampa Bay on Tuesday night to complete a five-game homestand.
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