BOSTON — The Bruins got back all their injured players on Saturday and, lo and behold, they appear to be a pretty good team once again. Who would have guessed?
David Pastrnak, playing his first game since April 4, scored a goal and had an assist. Hampus Lindholm, out since April 5, returned to provide some much needed puck-moving. And Linus Ullmark, out since the April 14, made 30 saves, many of the Grade A variety, to lift the Bruins to a 3-1 victory over the New York Rangers at TD Garden.
The Bruins still need more improvement in the final week of the season. They haven’t scored more than three goals in a game since April 2. Their streak of futility on the power play stretched to an 0-for-32 skid after an 0-for-3 showing. And Brad Marchand has not scored a goal in 10 games, his frustration accentuated late in the game when he hit the post with Ranger goalie Igor Shesterkin pulled for an extra skater.
But this was a solid win over a very good Ranger team — one the Bruins could still face in the first round. And the returnees injected some adrenaline into the lineup at the right time.
“This time of year is when you’re in the dog days, looking forward to the playoffs but still have to play games and play well against good hockey clubs, so it brings a littler bit of different energy in the room,” said coach Bruce Cassidy. “Listen, they’re very good NHL players. Elite, you could say. It’s going to make a difference in your lineup. Other guys shift back down to where they’re best suited as well. Once you get the bump from them, you get guys back to their normal spots and I just think it makes for a cleaner game.”
Lindholm and Pastrnak made their value evident late in their first period on a pretty scoring play that highlighted their abilities. Lindholm retrieved a puck in his own zone, shook off an Artemi Panarin check, cut in front of his net and fed Marchand, who carried it through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone before hitting Charlie McAvoy on the right side of the slot. McAvoy zipped a nice pass past two Ranger defenders to Pastrnak, who beat a helpless Igor Shesterkin with 35 seconds left in the period. It was Pastrnak’s 39th of the season.
“I skated with (Lindholm) for two and half weeks, so I saw plenty of that,” said Pastrnak with a smile. “He’s obviously a great puck mover … it’s not easy to come back and he had a great game. Him and Charlie on the back end, it’s fun to play with them. You know you’re going to get the puck.”
The Bruins took a 2-0 lead early in the second period. Pastrnak again had a hand in the goal. After a couple of Bruin miscues on breakout attempts, Pastrnak stopped an Adam Fox seam pass attempt with his skates and deflected it to Erik Haula. Haula then sprung Taylor Hall for a breakaway and he snapped his 18th goal over Shesterkin’s glove at 1:07.
Ullmark made several key stops to keep the lead at 2-0, a couple with the glove. He snared a Mika Zibanejad shot on a 3-on-1 and then made an even better stab of a Frank Vatrano one-timer.
“It’s about read-and-react, and then act on it,” said Ullmark of his flashy stops. “There’s a lot of good players out there who can fire it. And Mika is one of them. I felt lucky there. Sometimes that’s what you need. Going late in the season and in the playoffs, there’s going to be some puck-luck involved in it and it felt today that I did have that.”
Shesterkin had also made a couple of excellent saves in the second, the best one being on a Jake DeBrusk snapper from the slot, keeping the Rangers in striking distance going into the third.
Then there were some hairy moments in the third. Ullmark shot the puck into the stands for a delay penalty and the Rangers cut the lead in half on the power-play. Alexis LaFreniere got past Brandon Carlo and Carlo not only took a hooking penalty, but he took out Ullmark while falling. When Carlo went to collect his lost stick, Chris Kreider fed Zibanejad for a backdoor goal at 2:58 to get the Rangers to within a goal at 2-1. Not the prettiest sequence.
But the Bruins were able to kill Carlo’s penalty and then withstood some residual Ranger pressure.
Then a third line goal at 9:37 snuffed out Rangers’ comeback vibes. Connor Clifton made a great stretch pass off the end boards for Craig Smith, who unleashed a slapper that Shesterkin stopped but could not control the rebound. Trent Frederic was there on the left side and beat Shesterkin’s excellent attempt on the second stop, just squeezing it through the goalie for his seventh of the season.
Ullmark closed the door after that, earning the Bruins their first win over the Blueshirts in three tries this year, one that surely made Bruins’ fans feel a little better about their team as it heads into the final week of the regular season.
