Brandon Pirri, Rangers rally past Bruins

NEW YORK -- Forward Brandon Pirri scored two of the New York Rangers' five unanswered goals in the last 30-plus minutes of a 5-2 win against the Boston Bruins at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday.
The Rangers erased Boston's 2-0 first-period lead with goals from forwards Rick Nash, Kevin Hayes and Pirri in a span of 10:08 in the second period. Left wing Jimmy Vesey and Pirri scored 43 seconds apart early in the third period to put the game away.

Pirri, Nash, Vesey, center Derek Stepan and left wing J.T. Miller each had two points. Henrik Lundqvist made 27 saves for his third straight win.
New York (5-2-0) is 4-1-0 at home.
"We just felt like we could turn it around," Lundqvist said. "We showed it to ourselves already so many times this season, so we didn't panic."

Boston (3-4-0) has lost three in a row, getting outscored 14-4 in those games, including 9-0 in the second period.
The Bruins cited discipline as their problem Wednesday. Nash and Pirri converted on two of New York's four power plays in the second period and the Rangers were 2-for-6 in the game. Boston was 0-for-1 on the power play.
"We played well right from the get-go and I think the first half of the game was pretty good," Bruins coach Claude Julien said, "but you can't win hockey games with the number of penalties that we were given."
Bruins rookie goalie Zane McIntyre made 26 saves in his first NHL start. He made nine saves in a strong first period, when he was backed by goals from forwards David Pastrnak at 10 seconds and Austin Czarnik at 14:44. It was Czarnik's first NHL goal.
The game started unraveling for McIntyre and his teammates midway through the second.
Nash scored a power-play goal at 9:06. Hayes followed with his game-tying goal at 16:35. Pirri scored the go-ahead goal on the power play at 19:24.
Pirri scored again at 2:23 of the third and Vesey, a Boston native who played at Harvard University, scored at 3:06.
"Highs and lows," McIntyre said. "I think it's about maybe conquering those highs and lows, not getting too upbeat after a good save or a nice play and not getting too low after you get scored on. The biggest thing was just getting in there, seeing the action, really taking it all in and making sure that I can improve. ... It's just obviously not the result we were looking for."

Goal of the game

Pirri's go-ahead power-play goal was an example of what he does best -- shoot the puck. He got a pass from Miller, took his time in the right circle and put a shot into the top right corner.

Save of the game

Lundqvist kept the deficit at two goals with a blocker save on Boston center Dominic Moore at 5:26 of the second period. Moore was alone in the left circle and put a wrist shot on goal that Lundqvist knocked away. The Rangers scored five unanswered goals after that.

Highlight of the game

Vesey used to dream of scoring a goal for the Bruins. While that may never happen, he did score one against his former favorite team. It was a one-timer redirection from the left post off of a pretty cross-crease pass from Nash.

Unsung moment of the game

Seconds before Nash scored to cut Boston's lead to 2-1, Hayes made a critical play to keep the puck in the zone. He knocked down a clearing attempt from Bruins defenseman Torey Krug, dove forward to keep the play alive and settled the puck at the right wing boards, allowing Vesey to get it and move it across the zone to Stepan, who got it down low to Nash.

They said it

"We knew they were going to come out hard and with a chip on their shoulder after losing like they did at home [Tuesday]. They did what they wanted to do, but we knew they were a fragile team coming and going into the second period if we kept making their 'D' turn, getting it in, we'd start taking over. That's what happened." -- Rangers defenseman Marc Staal
"The second period is becoming an issue -- it already is an issue for our team. The last two nights we've played well in the first and we haven't been able to continue that. I think we started well in the second period and then penalties and things just got away. Our discipline wasn't there and you give a skilled team like that so many power plays, they're going to score. It's not acceptable." -- Bruins defenseman Torey Krug

Need to know

Rangers forward Josh Jooris sustained a separated shoulder in the first period and will be out indefinitely, coach Alain Vigneault said. ... Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh had an assist for the fifth straight game, a career high for consecutive games with an assist.

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What's next

Bruins: At the Detroit Red Wings on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; NESN, FS-D, NHL.TV).
Rangers: At the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET; MSG, FS-CR, TVA Sports, NHL.TV).