Rangers rally, beat Bruins in 2-1 overtime contest

With 1:50 remaining in the second period, and with the Bruins holding a 1-0 lead, a hit from Bruins winger David Pastrnak on Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren hard into the glass behind the New York net appeared set to swing the momentum of a Saturday showdown at TD Garden.

As the Bruins and Rangers tussled, Lindgren laid in a heap, and was ultimately helped off the ice with the help of a member of his team's training staff and with blood trickling from above his right eye.

The sentencing was as bad as the hit looked, too, with Pastrnak assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct. And though the Bruins found themselves powered by the play of Jeremy Swayman and as tight a penalty-killing unit as you'll see this year, it would be the next penalty assessed Boston's way that proved to be their undoing.

As it was on New York's fifth power-play opportunity of the night that Vincent Trocheck knotted things up, and in overtime it was Trocheck who delivered once again, this time with a net-front finish for a 2-1 Rangers victory.

"Very surprised," Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery said of the five-minute penalty that ultimately left the Bruins without their top scorer for the third period and all of overtime. "I thought it was two minutes. I don't think he hits him anywhere near his numbers. I think he hits him on the front of his shoulder.

"If I compare that to hit to hits I've seen, like when [Brad] Marchand got blasted from behind head-first into the boards ... I think that's more of a five-minute major for me. I guess I'm glad I'm not a ref."

Already down Pavel Zacha and Charlie McAvoy, the Pastrnak ejection at the end of the second period failed to help a Boston offense that got just one goal of support in this one, which came courtesy of a net-front bury from Trent Frederic against Igor Shesterkin just 127 seconds into the second period.

Frederic's night did end with the goal, however, as he dropped the gloves with the Rangers' Jacob Trouba in a short-but-spirited bout in the New York zone at the 11:05 mark of the second period.

The fight came in the first meeting between the two since Trouba clobbered Frederic in the head with a baseball-style swing in their meeting last month. Trouba was ultimately fined but not suspended for his Aaron Judge impersonation, which left a bad taste in the mouths of more than a few Bruins.

Up front, Matt Poitras made his return to the lineup after a scheduled night off Friday on Long Island.

Poitras, who had the secondary helper on Frederic's second-period goal, also went through an injury scare, as he went down the tunnel and back to the Boston locker room in the middle frame after a hard shove from the Rangers' Erik Gustafsson decked him into the boards and in pain.

Poitras would return to action before the end of the period (the Bruins called it a 'stinger' for the 19-year-old), and finished with one assist, a plus-1 rating, and one shot in over 14 minutes of time on ice.

Elsewhere in the Boston lineup, Patrick Brown jumped back into action for his ninth game of the season and his first since Nov. 24 against the Red Wings. Brown finished with one hit in 5:08 of ice time.

With Poitras and Brown in the lineup, Jesper Boqvist and Jakub Lauko sat as the B's healthy scratches up front, while Ian Mitchell was Boston's scratch on the backend.

Prior to the game, and part of their year-long centennial celebration, the Bruins honored members of the 'Lunchpail A.C.' era of Bruins hockey, which the club considers to be the era of B's hockey that ran from 1977 to 1985. The list of players honored before the game included Stan Jonathan, John Wensink, Rick Middleton, Mike Milbury, and Terry O'Reilly among others.

The Bruins also had Norm Leveille drop the ceremonial first puck.

This was Boston's third 'Eras Night' of the 2023-24 season.

The Bruins will return to action Tuesday night at home against the Wild.