BOSTON _ On Wednesday, the Rangers took a three-goal lead and held on for the victory over the Hurricanes.
Friday afternoon, the two-goal lead they had midway through the second period proved not big enough to hold against the team with the best record in the league.
David Krejci swept in a pass from David Pastrnak 1:40 into overtime to give the Boston Bruins a 3-2 victory over the Rangers in a nationally televised matinee at TD Garden.
The Bruins trailed 2-0 since early in the second and were being outplayed for most of the first two periods. But the Bruins (18-3-5) rallied with a goal late in the second, another in the third and got the winner at 1:40 in the 3-on-3 overtime.
The Rangers (12-9-3), who already had beaten a No. 1 team in the league this season when they dominated the Capitals, 4-1, on Nov. 20, play again Saturday afternoon in New Jersey against the Devils.
David Quinn's group had their chances to win this one. Goals by Pavel Buchnevich in the first period and Filip Chytil early in the second had staked them to a 2-0 lead.
Helped by four power plays in the first two periods, the Rangers were outshooting the Bruins 21-11 at one point. But when the Rangers were presented with a five-on-three power play for 1:02 late in the second period, they failed to take advantage, and ultimately that would haunt them.
"You know, that five-on-three, to me, and our power play really cost us tonight," said Quinn, the Cranston, R.I., native, lifelong Bruins fan and former Boston University coach. "You go 0 for 6 and, you have a five-on-three and you get a four-minute (power play), and you barely get a scoring chance out of it, it just really is frustrating."
Quinn called his timeout as soon as the Rangers got the two-man advantage, sensing that a goal there might put the game away. Matt Grzelcyk was already in the box, having high sticked Mika Zibanejad at 12:52 of the period, when Sean Kuraly was called for cross-checking Adam Fox in the Rangers' defensive zone at 13:51, setting up the two-man advantage.
"That's it," he said. "I mean you're 3-0 (if) you score on a five-on-three, the whole game kind of changes.
"(We) just didn't execute."
Kuraly made it hurt when he was credited with a goal at 18:28 on a crazy sequence where Jake DeBrusk whipped a shot into traffic that Kuraly deflected off the post. Goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, in reaching behind him to try and corral the rebound, knocked the puck in with his stick.
Boston then tied the game at 4:27 of the third when Pastrnak, the league's leading goalscorer, just happened to be in the right spot at the right time to whack in the rebound of a shot by Krejci for his 24th goal in 26 games this season.
The Rangers had one more great chance to win it when Boston's Par Lindholm was given a double minor for high sticking Brendan Smith at 12:58 of the third period. But the Rangers failed to score. Then, on the second shift of overtime, Pastrnak skated in up the middle, made a move on Pavel Buchnevich, and as Fox drifted over to him and Lundqvist came across to play the shot, he sent a drop pass to Krejci, who put it into an open net.
"You know, for me, I just have to respect that he can shoot it anywhere there," Lundqvist said. "So he's dragging, dragging. I follow him, and then when he puts it right back... the game is over."
