Depleted Bruins fall to Rangers, 6-2

BOSTON — With all the absences from their lineup, the Bruins needed to play about a perfect game to come out on top of the New York Rangers in the annual Black Friday matchup at TD Garden.

And they were far from perfect.

After falling behind 4-0 in the first two periods, the B’s made a spirited comeback attempt in the third period to cut the deficit to two goals but they just didn’t have enough oomph to climb out of that deep of a hole.

Down a pair late, coach Marco Sturm pulled Joonas Korpisalo for an extra skater with just under four minutes left but Alexis LaFreniere sealed it with an empty-netter. Vladislav Gavrikov added a garbage time goal and the Rangers skated away with a 6-2 win.

The Bruins were already beset with injuries with Charlie McAvoy and Viktor Arvidsson out, but they also found out Friday morning that both David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha were unavailable due to unspecified maladies. Both players finished the game on Wednesday but Pastrnak, for one, was slow to get to the bench after one late shift.

That forced Casey Mittelstadt, out since Nov. 6, into the lineup without the benefit of a team practice and Georgii Merkulov was called up from the Providence Bruins and he had to travel from Toronto, where the P-Bruins were set to play, on Friday. Meanwhile, with Matej Blumel shifted to LTIR with a lower body injury he suffered on Wednesday, Riley Tufte was re-inserted into the lineup.

It was not an ideal situation, but such is life in this condensed schedule.

“It’s got to be the same as any other day,” said Morgan Geekie of the approach to such a game. “Obviously, we know the firepower that we lost but, I mean, at least for me games like this are an opportunity for guys to step up and seize opportunity. That’s how you make it in this league. I think up and down the lineup we didn’t show up to start the game and obviously they got ahead quick. We battled back a little bit but it’s just not a very acceptable effort.”

Not one too make excuses, Sturm felt the travel schedule — returning from a four-game road trip after Wednesday’s game on Long Island, Thursday off and then back at it for the Friday matinee — had more to do with the bad start than the different line combinations.

“We knew it was going to be hard coming back from the road, that was the biggest thing,” said Sturm. “We knew a few guys were missing, too, but this is a not an excuse. I think to survive those kinds of games and stretches with injuries, a lot of guys have to step up. And a lot of guys didn’t.”

Whatever the reason, the first period was a disjointed mess. The Rangers took a 2-0 lead as the B’s played much of the first 20 minutes either in their own zone or chasing a neutral zone turnover.

That’s how the Blueshirts got on the board first just 3:28 into the game. Jonathan Aspirot stepped up for a loose puck at the red line but Will Cuylle beat him to it, tipping it past him to create a 2-on-1 with Artemi Panarin, who beat Joonas Korpisalo with a wrist shot from the right circle.

The B’s briefly thought they’d tied it up on a good shift from the fourth line but it was clear Tufte had shoved Igor Shesterkin, along with the puck, into the net and it was correctly washed out by the ref.

The Rangers took a 2-0 lead on an odd play. From the right boards, Vincent Trocheck threw a puck intended for the slot but it went all the way through to bounce off the left boards. That set it up on a tee for wide-open left defenseman Carson Soucy, who stepped into a slapper and blew it past Korpisalo.

The B’s had chances to cut the deficit. On a late first-period power play, Elias Lindholm pushed a puck in their air to Geekie at the side of the net but Geekie whiffed on it on the aerial biscuit.

Then they had a couple of excellent chances early in the second. First, Shesterkin made a great post-to-post save on an Alex Steeves bid on a 2-on-1 with Geekie. And a little later, Geekie had an open net at which to shoot but Steeves’ feed was just off target.

The Rangers withstood the B’s surge and then took advantage of the B’s penchant for penalties. The B’s were in the process of killing off a Marat Khusnutdinov high stick when disaster struck. With six seconds left on the Khusnutdinov penalty, Hampus Lindholm took a double minor for high-sticking Jonny Brodzinski.

Just as Khusnutdinov was about to get out of the box, Mika Zibanejad scored from below the left circle.

It was officially a 5-on-4 goal so one of the Hampus Lindholm minors was wiped out, but it didn’t help the B’s any. Zibanejad scored his second in 45 seconds at 15:07 and the Blueshirts were well on their way, up 4–0.

“That stinks, ” said the defenseman Lindholm. “Bad penalty on me. I have to keep my stick on the ice, unfortunately. I’ve got to try and not take those. I think it turned the game around a little bit. I think we were going before that. I have to learn and as a group we have to take less penalties, me included.”

The B’s would not suffer their first shutout of the season, however. Mittelstadt broke it up at 4:07 of the third when, from the top of the crease, he finally got his stick on a loose puck and scored his fifth of the season.

With the B’s buzzing, Ranger coach Mike Sullivan called his timeout to settled things down, but it didn’t quite work.

Geekie scored his 18th of the season at 5:49 when he tipped Henri Jokiharju’s shot past Shesterkin and the B’s had some life.

That, however, was as close as they would get.

“We got booed off the ice after the second and we totally deserved it,” Geekie said. “We know we’ve got to get the crowd back into it. I thought we came out well in the third and battled back to make it 4-2. It’s a game at that point and just couldn’t find a way to close the game. It’s a good league but it’s tough to win when you play 10 minutes, 20 minutes.”

The B’s get right back at it with an important divisional game against the Red Wings at the Garden on Saturday night.

Whoever is in the lineup, they will need to show up on time.