“We got frustrated in the second – we totally deserved it, and we know we have to get the crowd back into it,” said Morgan Geikie, who scored his 18th goal to restore the lead in the NHL. “I thought we did well in the third and fought back to make it 4-2 and at that point it was a game away and couldn’t find a way to close the gap.
“It’s hard to win games when you only play 10 minutes, 20 minutes.”
After a nine-day, four-game trip, the Bruins looked tired on the road.
“We knew it would be hard to come back from the road; I think that was the biggest thing,” Sturm said. “Knowing that maybe there are some guys missing, but that’s not an excuse. I think to survive these types of games and stretches, with a lot of injuries, a lot of guys will have to step up and a lot of guys won’t.”
The Bruins slipskated for large portions of the opening period, which ended with the Rangers leading 2–0, although it felt like it was 20–0.
A bad turnover in the neutral zone led to a two-on-one and New York took advantage, with Will Quayle throwing a pass across the slot that Artemi Panarin broke up just 3:28 into Joonas Korpisalo’s glove.
The Bruins thought they had tied it, but Riley Tufte’s attempt was fouled right as the bigger Bruin pushed the puck – and Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin, who covered it – into the net.
The Rangers, who won their third consecutive game and recorded their league-high 11th road win, doubled their lead when a blind centering pass passed through a pile of bodies in front and landed on Carson Soucy’s stick at the top of the left-wing circle. The defenseman immediately slapped a pass to Korpisalo on the high glove side.
The Bruins finally started to show signs of life late, especially in the last minute when Kuill was sent into the box for fouling Hampus Lindholm.
The penalty reached second, but the Bruins gained no advantage.
The Rangers took advantage of a double-minor high sticking call on Lindholm, with Mika Zibanejad scoring a pair of power-play goals to lead 4–0 after two periods.
“It stinks. That high stick is on me. Gotta put that stick on the ice,” Lindholm said. “But we’ve got to try not to take them. Obviously, it’s changed the game a little bit. I think we were going earlier than that, so we’ve got to learn and as a group we’ve got to take less penalties, including myself.”
Casey Mittelstaedt (playing for the first time since November 6) and Geiki made it close by scoring early in the third, before the Rangers closed it out with goals from Alexis Lafreniere (empty net) and Vladislav Gavrikov (low slot tip).
The absence of some of Boston’s top producers was felt, but Geikie said changing the lineup alone won’t change the mentality.
“Obviously, we know we lost some firepower, but I mean at least for me, games like this are an opportunity for a lot of guys to step up and take advantage of the opportunity and that’s how you make it in this league,” he said. “And I think up and down the lineup, we didn’t come out to start the game and obviously they went out fast, and we struggled a little bit, but that’s not a very acceptable effort today.”
The Bruins (14-12-0) get back into it Saturday night with another Original Six battle against the visiting Red Wings.
Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com. chase him @globejimmcbride,
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