BOSTON (AP) ― Claude Julien wanted his Bruins to play more aggressively in the third period. The Boston coach got his wish with the help of some shaky defense by the New York Rangers.
A rare rough day for goalie Henrik Lundqvist certainly helped, too.
Brad Marchand and Milan Lucic scored in the final period after Johnny Boychuk broke a tie in the second, Lundqvist gave up more than four goals for the first time in 152 games, and Boston beat New York 5-2 on Sunday to take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal series.
“Some games you’re going to get more goals, some maybe less,” Bruins captain Zdeno Chara said, “but the important thing was we were trying to focus on playing hard until the end.”
New York’s best period was the second when it outshot Boston 16-9. The Rangers then allowed two goals in the third.
“We gave it to them,” said Lundqvist, last year’s Vezina Trophy winner as the NHL’s top goalie. “I thought we played great. I didn’t think they had to work really hard to get a couple goals there. We just made it really tough on ourselves.”
Senators get past Penguins
OTTAWA (AP) ― Colin Greening scored 7:39 into double overtime, and the Ottawa Senators rallied for a 2-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins that cut their series deficit to 2-1 on Sunday night.
Daniel Alfredsson got Ottawa even 1-1 by scoring a short-handed goal with 29 seconds left in regulation just after the Senators pulled goalie Craig Anderson for an extra skater.
“We were just calm,” Anderson said of the Senators’ mood heading into overtime. “We had tied it up. We had momentum. We felt like the fans really rallied behind us.
“Going into overtime, we knew we just had to build off the momentum and keep the pressure on.”