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Photo by Jared Wickerman/Getty Images |
1st Period
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Photo by Jared Wickerman/Getty Images |
This years post-Thanksgiving match up of the Bruins hosting the Rangers started off at pretty decent clip. An early 4 on 4 situation lead to some very good chances coming off the Boston Bruins sticks, one in particular by
Zdeno Chara off a deflection. The chippiness began shorty after leading both teams to start carving ruts to the sin bin.
Brad Marchand, who has been slumping as of late, scored his fourth goal of the season off a one-timer from
Loui Eriksson and
Zdeno Chara. The excitement was short lived as
Rick Nash scored his 3rd goal of the season a minute and a half later, slipping an easily stoppable puck past
Tuukka Rask. A minute and a half after the Nash goal,
Ryan McDonagh got another soft goal past Rask, taking the air right out of the Garden. On an afternoon that saw the return of veteran
Dennis Seidenberg, the Boston Bruins defense, despite two soft goals let in by
Tuukka Rask, did look especially good during the first period, especially rookie
Dougie Hamilton who was moving the puck well and getting in on the offensive play.
2nd Period

It was a goal-less, defensive period that saw Boston Bruins head coach
Claude Julien attempting to spark his squad by giving the lion's share of the ice time to the recently hot 3rd line of
Carl Soderberg,
Chris Kelly, and
Reily Smith. The defensive battle led to a 5-minute major penalty for fighting taken by Bruins captain
Zdeno Chara who absolutely croaked
Brian Boyle. New York Rangers goaltender
Henrik Lundqvist was absolutely phenomenal in the 2nd period. The Boston Bruins threw everything they could at Henrik and he simply stone-walled them.
3rd Period

The Boston Bruins came out flying in the third period leading to a quick goal by
Patrice Bergeron assisted by
Brad Marchand and
Johnny Boychuk, tying the game at 2. With energy injected back into the building, Boston went full tilt at Lundqvist. The New York Rangers, having left the blue line wide open during the entire game, gave a puck away to
David Krejci at 15:26 who fed the captain
Zdeno Chara allowing him to boom a slap shot past
Henrik Lundqvist to break the tie. The goal, Zdeno's 6th of the season, was also the 4th Gordie Howe hat trick in his career. Despite the Rangers getting a late power play opportunity after a Too Many Men on The Ice call, the Boston Bruins held on to defeat the New York Rangers 3 - 2.
Happy Thanksgiving!
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