With the top spot in the NHL’s Eastern Conference on the line, the Bruins went into the game knowing only a superb effort would top the New York Rangers. Sadly, although a superb effort was given, the hometown team came out on the short end of the stick, with a 3-2 loss to the Rangers in overtime. A snowy Saturday in Boston started out with a scoreless first period that saw the Bruins go 0 for 3 on the power play. Both teams had 8 shots on goal and the Bruins were only able to muster 1 shot while on their four minutes of the man advantage. The Rangers tripled the Bruin’s hit total, showing that their goal for the game was to adopt the B’s patented physical style of play. Overall, the opening period was an uneventful one, with only a combined seven scoring chances between the two clubs.

The second period, unlike the first, was flooded with notable events. Just one minute and thirty-one seconds into the middle period the visiting Rangers opened the scoring, with Ryan Callahan sending home a strong wrist shot from Tuukka Rask’s right-hand side, as Rask seemed to be guessing pass the whole way and was surprised by the Ranger’s captain’s shot. About one minute after the Bruins surrendered the goal, the team’s resident pugilist decided to get his team and the crowd going with a spirited scrap against Ranger’s big man Mike Rupp. Thornton’s plan to light a fire in his team definitely worked, because less than one minute after, Andrew Ference put the B’s on the board, jumping into the play and finagling a nifty backhand around Ranger’s goaltender Henrik Lundqvist for the goal. After a sloppy goal that gave scorer Marian Gaborik his 24^th tally of the season, Bruin’s defenseman Adam McQuaid went crossbar down with a snapshot off of a beautiful feed from fellow d-man Andrew Ference.

Going into the final stanza tied at two goals apiece, the Bruins knew that they would have to be strong and disciplined to break the stalemate. Both teams had a number of failed chances, as the Rangers failed to convert on two power plays and the B’s failed to convert on their only one in the period (their fourth goalless man-advantage of the game). The game inevitably went into overtime, with action in the third being much like that of the first period, scoreless. 1:50 into the overtime, while racing to a puck in the corner, Andrew Ference bumped into the Ranger’s Ryan McDonagh, sending his head into the boards at an awkward angle and a high rate of speed. McDonagh, after about a minute, was able to skate to the bench under his own power. The referees saw Ference’s hit as grounds for ejection, and the Bruin’s D-man was ejected from the game and his team assessed with a 5-minute major penalty. The call, extremely disabling in O.T. because the Bruins were forced to play 4 on 3, proved to be Boston’s demise. Rask and his three amigos were able to withstand New York’s constant pressure until 3 seconds left in the period. At around the ten second mark, Rask made two close-range, beautiful saves, only to squirt out a rebound on the second save right to the stick of Marian Gaborik, who was able to backhand the puck over the sprawling Rask with only three seconds left for the game winning goal. The Bruins were able to garner a point from the game but the feeling in the locker room was that the point was not enough. The B’s seek revenge on the Rangers, and will have plenty of chances, seeing that the teams will meet three more times this season.