BOSTON — Saturday’s matchup between the Bruins and the Rangers promised to be a star-studded affair, and it was Boston which came out on top over New York.
The Black and Gold took home a 4-2 win at TD Garden, which brought their winning streak up to 10 games. The B’s also improved to 25-2-3 on home ice.
The Bruins’ dominance this season not only can be seen through their goal differential, which improved to plus-105, but also their ability to close out games.
Boston was up 2-1 over the Rangers heading into the final period, but it outscored New York, 2-1, to seal the victory. The Bruins improved to an NHL-best plus-50 goal differential in the third period.
“We got to it,” Montgomery said when asked if his team got back to playing Bruins-style hockey. “I thought we played intelligently in the third. The first two periods, for whatever reason, our mental execution — us reading plays, making plays with or without the puck — was really slow. It’s a little understandable. We’ve played six games in nine and a half days. We’ve had a lot of travel. It wears on you. And you tell the early start, we didn’t mentally start with the 1:00 start time.”
Charlie Coyle added: “It’s all about finding a way. Of course, goaltending has been huge for us. Just finding a way with this group. Never panicking no matter what happens. Never getting outplayed, outshot, whatever the case is. Just sticking with it. No sense of … panic, I guess. Everyone’s calm. Everyone knows what the task is. If things aren’t working, you play a simple style. Play the right way, and it works out for us. I think, not always being perfect, just doing what it takes.”
The 10-game winning streak is the first double-digit winning streak for the Bruins since the 2013-14 team won 12 games in a row, according to NHL Public Relations.
Here are more notes from Saturday’s Bruins-Rangers:
— Boston came into Saturday’s game with the league’s best penalty kill at 86.9%. The Rangers, who added Patrick Kane prior to the NHL trade deadline, went 1-for-3 on the power play thanks to the efforts of the penalty-kill unit and goaltender Linus Ullmark.
“We didn’t have a lot of footage. We had one game,” Montgomery said of the Rangers. “But we saw where they were going to put Kane. (Assistant coach) Joe Sacco does a great job on the penalty kill. It’s first in the league because he does a great job with details, and we use a lot of players. It’s a combination of we have a lot of good penalty killers, and we have a good plan in place with coach Sacco.”
— It was “Hockey Day” in Czechia, and David Pastrnak scored his 44th goal of the season in Saturday’s game. The Bruins forward is eight goals behind Edmonton Oilers star Connor McDavid.
— His fellow countryman David Krejci tallied an assist on the goal. That gave the veteran center his ninth 50-point season of his career, which is fifth behind Ray Bourque, Johnny Bucyk, Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand in franchise history, according to NHL Public Relations.
— Tyler Bertuzzi made his Bruins debut Saturday afternoon. He provided an assist to Charlie Coyle for the game’s opening goal.
“Just like we anticipated,” Montgomery said on how Bertuzzi fit in with the team. “He’s a hockey player, and he made a lot of plays. … He’s really smart with his game management, too. He didn’t force plays. Put them in, he likes to forecheck. His line mates like to forecheck.”
— The Bruins are off until Thursday, where they will take on the Oilers at TD Garden. Puck drop is scheduled at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+ and Hulu.
