BOSTON (AP) — Vincent Trocheck scored his second goal of the game 2:03 into overtime and the New York Rangers rallied to beat the Boston Bruins 2-1 Saturday night in a matchup of the Eastern Conference’s top two teams.
Igor Shesterkin made 22 saves for the Rangers, who have won three of their last four games. New York is tied with Boston with 43 points atop the conference, but the Rangers have two more wins.
Trent Frederic scored for the Bruins and Jeremy Swayman stopped 31 shots. Boston had won five of its last seven games.
Trocheck tied it with a power-play goal on a wrister from the slot with 9:10 left in the third period.
On the game-winner, Artemi Panarin sent a pass from the slot to Trocheck near the left side of the crease, where he fired it past Swayman.
As part of the Bruins’ 100th season in which they’re honoring different team eras, they had a pregame on-ice ceremony to commemorate what they called the “Lunch Pail Era” from 1977-85.
Frederic’s goal, appropriately, fit into that type of play when he went hard to the net and knocked a loose puck behind Shesterkin 2:07 into the second period after forward James van Riemsdyk sent a backhand pass from the right circle.
Frederic later fought Jacob Trouba after Boston rookie Matt Poitras left the ice favoring his right shoulder following a hit into the boards by Erik Gustafssson.
Boston star David Pastrnak was given a 5-minute major and a game misconduct for boarding Ryan Lindgren.
The Bruins killed off a 3-minute power play, with Swayman making a right-shoulder stop on Trocheck’s wrister from the slot.
Before the game, Hall of Famer Ray Bourque pushed Normand Léveillé onto the ice his wheelchair and the former forward — with the help of teammates Rick Middleton and Terry O’Reilly — lifted himself up to drop the ceremonial first puck, drawing a roar from the TD Garden crowd.
Léveillé’s career was cut short when he suffered a brain aneurysm after the first period of a 1982 game in Vancouver that left him unable to walk.
Also, during that era, O’Reilly and Mike Milbury went into the stands in Madison Square Garden after a fan hit Stan Jonathan under the eye — with what Jonathan said during an interview between the first and second periods was a “rolled up program” — and grabbed his stick. Milbury hit the fan with a shoe and Saturday he walked onto the ice, holding a shoe, to the delight of the fans.
The Bruins were again without top defenseman Charlie McAvoy and top-six center Pavel Zacha. Both were placed on injured reserve Thursday. McAvoy missed his fourth straight game and Zacha his third.
UP NEXT
Rangers: At Toronto on Tuesday night.
Bruins: Host Minnesota on Tuesday night.
