Pastrnak, Bruins top Rangers for seventh straight win

NEW YORK -- David Pastrnak scored his eighth goal of the season, and the Boston Bruins continued their record-setting start, defeating the New York Rangers 5-2 at Madison Square Garden on Thursday for their seventh straight win and 10th in 11 games.

Boston's 20 points and 10 wins are the most over the first 11 games in franchise history.
"Everyone's bought in," Bruins forward Trent Frederic said. "We're having fun at the rink. 'Monty' [coach Jim Montgomery] has been great to everyone. He's made it a fun environment and it's just a great time to be on the Boston Bruins right now.
Frederic was one of four different goal-scorers for Boston in the third period, joining Charlie Coyle, Jake DeBrusk and Hampus Lindholm. Linus Ullmark made 18 saves.
The Bruins (10-1-0) outshot New York 17-3 in the period.
"The results take care of themselves, we feel like, when our process is the way it is," said forward Nick Foligno, who had two assists. "We've been dialed into that. We've managed the game well. We've won our special teams. We've made a lot of contributions in different areas of the game and it's showing in our results."

Jimmy Vesey and Adam Fox scored, and Igor Shesterkin made 32 saves for the Rangers (6-4-2), who had a three-game winning streak end.
New York played the last two-and-a-half periods with five defensemen because Ryan Lindgren left the game midway through the first period with an upper-body injury. He is day to day, coach Gerard Gallant said.
Gallant said he thought the Rangers became fatigued in the third, which could have been a result of losing Lindgren to the injury and defenseman Braden Schneider to a five-minute fighting major at 10:57 of the second.
"I'm guessing, but I can't say for sure," Gallant said. "But, no excuse. You've got to battle and that's part of the game."
Pastrnak gave Boston a 1-0 lead at 12:53 of the first, extending his point streak to six games. He fended off a check from Vesey to keep the puck and score with a backhanded shot from the bottom of the left circle into the top left corner of the net.
The goal came less than eight minutes after Pastrnak took an interference penalty on Lindgren following a hit along the boards.
The Bruins killed the penalty, and Coyle said they were energized by seeing Pastrnak stand up for himself.
"That adds another whole element to see a guy like that working, standing up, playing that kind of hard-nosed," Coyle said. "It's not going to be all the time and he shouldn't have to do that, but when he does that says a lot about him as a player.
"It's another thing guys are doing for the team and that's what it's all about. I think that's why we're having the success we are - guys are doing the little things like that and showing that they care. And they're ready and focused and they're not going to be pushed around."

Vesey tied it 1-1 at 10:21 of the second, scoring on a redirection of Mika Zibanejad's pass from the right circle into the slot.
Boston forward A.J. Greer was given a two-minute instigator minor 36 seconds later for going after Schneider after he laid a hard hit on Frederic.
The result was a power play for the Rangers, but the Bruins said they were happy to kill it off because of how Greer stood up for Frederic.
"That gave our bench a lot of momentum," Montgomery said.
Coyle scored the first goal of the third, giving Boston a 2-1 lead at 2:56 with a tap-in from in front of the left post after Lindholm slid him a wraparound pass through the crease.
Coyle, who has a goal in four straight games, used his stick to gain position and make himself available for the tap-in.
"I don't even know if I had that great of position, but he just put it on a tee for me," Coyle said.
Fox scored 48 seconds later with a wrist shot from above the right circle to make it 2-2.
But the Bruins quickly regained the lead 3-2 with Frederic scoring at 6:04. DeBrusk then scored on a one-timer from Taylor Hall at 10:19 to make it 4-2.
Lindholm scored an empty-net goal from nearly the length of the ice at 19:02 for the 5-2 final.
"This was the best game management game we've had without the puck," Montgomery said. "The Rangers are a really good hockey team and they had us on the ropes there [in the second], but we kept them to the outside. That's really good team defense."
NOTES: Ullmark improved to 8-0-0, tying a Bruins record for the most consecutive wins by a goalie to start a season (Tim Thomas, 2010-11). … The Bruins announced defenseman Derek Forbort underwent surgery on his right middle finger and will miss 4-6 weeks. Forbort was injured in a 6-5 overtime win at the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday. … Zibanejad had an assist on Vesey's goal to extend his point streak to four games (two goals, four assists).