Sometimes it takes a hot goaltender to cover up for the deficiencies that the team playing in front of him continues to display.
Goaltender Jonathan Quick stole the show and led the Rangers to a 2-1 win over the Boston Bruins at Madison Square Garden last night that snapped a four game losing skid. It was also the Rangers’ first win at the Garden since December 6th.
Quick made 32 saves and picked up career win #399 in his first start since Igor Shesterkin went on injured reserve.
The defensive lapses that have haunted the Rangers were still there, turnovers in the offensive zone, failure to win the 50-50 battles along the boards but Quick was more than equal to the task of giving his team a chance to secure a much needed win.
Quick was especially sharp in the second and third periods as he made 24 saves over the final 40 minutes.
Early in the second, Quick got some help from Braden Schneider. Boston’s Brandon Carlo fired a shot and Quick made the intial save but he couldn’t control the puck. As it appeared to be going in, Schneider was right there to sweep it away before it could go completely over the goal line.
The soon to be 39-year old goaltender came up with three saves in a matter of seconds that typified his night.
Justin Brazeau fired a shot from just inside the blue line that was knocked down in front. Mark Kastelic corralled the puck and tried a back hand that was stopped by Quick. Brazeau picked up the loose puck and Quick denied him point blank range but couldn’t control the puck. It went right to John Beecher who was open on the right side, but Quick again made the save and held on for a stoppage.
The Bruins kept up the pressure and finally got one past Quick.
David Pastrnak made a beautiful cross ice pass to Elias Lindholm who buried the puck past a helpless Quick, but that would be the only one he would let in.
“They had scored one and there was probably in that period, there was probably a lot of good saves but then he made two or three really great saves that we needed at that point,” Coach Peter Laviolette said. “Especially the one that slid out the backside and he ended up getting across, a couple that went through the seam and you really got to be on your toes. I thought he was really sharp, really solid game.”
Later in the period, Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy was wide open at the left face off circle and was ready to score the tying goal, but Quick dipped into the fountain of youth as he was able to make a terrific pad save to keep the lead.
It had been awhile, but the Rangers took their first multi-goal lead in the first period since 10/22/24 at Montreal (thanks Larry Brooks).
Mika Zibanejad ended a streak of eight straight games without a goal when he scored to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead.
Zibanejad started the play as his shot was saved by Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman, who couldn’t control it. Reilly Smith tried to back hand the rebound and Swayman got a piece of it, but Zibanejad was right at the net to poke it in.
Zibanejad’s seventh goal of the season was a milestone moment as it was also his 700th career point.
“Good to see Mika score. He does everything for us and he’s definitely very deserving of putting the puck in the net. Hopefully they start coming in waves for him,” said Smith.
Less than three minutes later, Brett Berard cashed in a two on one rush as he fired one past Swayman for his third goal of the season. It was the rookie’s first at MSG and it proved to be the game winner as it gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead.
“Even the goal by Berard, just coming out fast and just playing a quicker game, getting it behind, just a little redirect, you end up catching a two on one,” Laviolette said. “He [Berard] probably made a great decision to shoot because Boston takes away the pass on the two on ones.”
Laviolette may have been taking a shot at the struggling Alexis Lafreniere (no goals in last 11, 1 in his last 19) who broke in on a two on one with Artemi Panarin early in the first period but tried to pass instead of taking the shot.
Not to be denied, Swayman played well for Boston as he made 25 saves and kept the Rangers from expanding the lead with some clutch saves including two times he denied Lafreniere on a couple of deflections.
The Bruins played most of the third period in the Rangers zone.
At one point, Nikita Zadorov walked right into the zone with little resistance but Quick denied him from in front.
“It was a little loose through the neutral zone for me, there was a couple of times where they slipped through, I would like to get a little bit more skin on skin with regard to people trying to get through there, get behind us,” Laviolette said.
The Rangers were under siege late in the third period as the Bruins applied an enormous amount of pressure to get the tying goal, but Quick saved the day with an exquisite display of goaltending.
“He’s [Quick] so calm and collected,” Smith said. “He makes three huge saves in a row and he just goes about it like nothing just happened. He does a good job kind of settling the momentum for us and I think he did a huge job of just, pretty much taking a win for us. He made some saves that probably would’ve went in and that changes the momentum of the game and gives us a little bit of a cushion.”