BOSTON — The lineup the Boston Bruins iced quickly made the New York Rangers’ Black Friday game one they had to take advantage of. David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha both sat with day-to-day injuries, joining top defenseman Charlie McAvoy among the team’s hurt players. On top of that, Bruins coach Marco Sturm elected to start Joonas Korpisalo in net rather than standout Jeremy Swayman.
“Certainly it’s an opportunity that you have to take advantage of when it presents itself,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said.
The Rangers did. They struck twice in the first period, then took advantage of a Hampus Lindholm double minor in the second, building enough of a cushion to beat Boston 6-2. It wasn’t a full 60-minute effort — the Bruins controlled play to start both the second and third periods — but it was sufficient.
New York has won three games in a row and is 13-11-2: in playoff position by points (28), though not point percentage (.538, No. 13 in the East). The Rangers’ 0-3-0 Western road trip last week appears behind them.
“It’s not perfect by any stretch, but certainly our intentions are in the right spot,” Sullivan said. “I think our execution can continue to improve, just getting a little bit sharper with our puck-possession game, but I think the guys are buying into the game that we’re trying to play as a team.”
The Rangers started quickly against Boston. Less than four minutes into the game, Carson Soucy fired the puck up the boards, and Will Cuylle won it from Jonathan Aspirot, sending the Rangers on a two-on-one rush. Cuylle passed to Artemi Panarin, who beat Korpisalo to give New York an early lead. Soucy — not typically known for his offense — added to the lead midway through the period, blasting a one-timer bar down and into the net. Trocheck excitedly shoved him in celebration.
“Just tried to get it by the first guy,” Soucy said. “I didn’t even really see it go in and just heard a ting and then play stopped.”
New York’s first period was solid, both in terms of results and process. But Boston made a push to start the second period: Nikita Zadorov set up a two-on-one rush with a stretch pass, and later, Adam Fox overskated Alex Steeves, giving the Bruins a dangerous chance in front of the net. Sullivan said Boston outplayed his team to start the period, but Igor Shesterkin kept the Bruins off the board. New York eventually used its special teams to “kind of break their momentum at least and create some of their own,” Mika Zibanejad said.
Trocheck drew a Marat Khusnutdinov high stick midway through the frame, and Zibanejad nearly scored from the slot on the ensuing power play. His shot hit Korpisalo. The top unit didn’t score, but with the second unit on the ice, Jonny Brodzinski drew another high stick, this time on Lindholm. Lindholm drew blood, giving the Rangers a four-minute power play. Sullivan’s team made the most of it. Zibanejad exacted revenge for his near goal earlier in the power play, scoring on a pair of one-timers, the second of which deflected off Zadorov’s stick.
“I had two or three good chances that didn’t go in, so it was a bit frustrating,” Zibanejad said. “Nice to see two go in.”
Zibanejad is up to nine goals through 26 games this season. It’s a drastic improvement from 2024-25, when he didn’t reach the nine-goal mark until the Rangers’ 46th game.
Two power-play goals in only 45 seconds for Mika Zibanejad! ✌️
📺: @NHL_On_TNT & @StreamOnMax ➡️ https://t.co/4TuyIATi3T pic.twitter.com/QXaPDj6dhy
— NHL (@NHL) November 28, 2025
Much like the in second, Boston got off to a better start than New York to start the third. First Casey Mittelstadt jammed in a loose puck after a flurry of Bruins chances, then Morgan Geekie tipped in a Henri Jokiharju shot to cut New York’s lead to 4-2. Sullivan called a timeout shortly before Geekie’s goal, trying to get his team back on track.
“In the third period, you’re guarding against human nature where you want to exhale, and you can’t in today’s game,” Sullivan said.
But Sullivan liked that his team responded after the goals, and it ended up tilting the ice as the period went on. Shesterkin stopped Boston from scoring again, and Alexis Lafrenière picked up an empty-net goal. Vladislav Gavrikov scored on a tip with 2:58 left for good measure. In total, the Rangers had 55.92 percent of the five-on-five expected goal share, per Natural Stat Trick.
“Obviously (the team has to) try to have a better start to that third, but we got the game under control pretty good to close it out,” Soucy said.
That matters. Good teams are able to halt opponents’ momentum swings, and New York was able to do that against the Bruins.
Here are six other thoughts from Boston.
1. New York won 4-2 against Carolina on Wednesday. With two road wins this trip, the Rangers’ road record improved to 11-4-1. No other team in the league has more than 10 road wins.
The Rangers have been on the road frequently to start the season. Sixteen of their first 26 games have been away from Madison Square Garden. That trend is about to change: Eight of the team’s next 11 games are at home.
2. Panarin had a four-point night and is back up to a point-per-game pace (26 points in 26 games). He has 19 points in his past 12 games.
“Just the sneakiest, always making plays,” Soucy said. “Comes out of the game with four points where you don’t really realize it — especially as a D-man you’re kind of looking out for us, looking out for defense — and then all of the sudden at the end of the game he’s got four points because he’s just always making these smart, little, simple plays.”
“He has game-breaking ability with his playmaking,” Sullivan said. “Once again it was on display tonight.”
The coach credited him with using the width of the rink well and using his vision to make productive plays.
“He’s one step ahead of everybody on the ice,” the coach said.
3. Riley Tufte committed one of the more obvious goaltender interference infractions in recent NHL history, jabbing Igor Shesterkin’s glove until the puck dislodged and slid into the net. The officials promptly waved it off.
4. Urho Vaakanainen came out of the lineup for Scott Morrow, whom the Rangers had sent to AHL Hartford after their loss to Utah on Saturday. New York didn’t have enough cap space for Morrow to come back up until after Juuso Pärssinen cleared waivers and was assigned to AHL Hartford, and the defenseman had to play in at least one AHL game before being recalled because of the new collective bargaining agreement’s rules preventing paper transactions.
Morrow picked up his first Rangers’ point — an assist on Lafrenière’s empty netter — but he also failed to win a puck from Mittelstadt ahead of Boston’s first goal. Sullivan trusted him with 14:52 of ice time, his second-highest mark of the season.
5. The Rangers were a little short-handed with Will Borgen still out with an upper-body injury. The reliable defenseman has missed seven of the team’s past eight games. Vaakanainen and Conor Sheary were the team’s healthy scratches.
Noah Laba left the game briefly after a hit from Bruins’ defenseman Mason Lohrei. He said he was pulled by the concussion spotter for evaluation, but he passed and returned to action.
6. New York will have a goalie decision Saturday against Tampa Bay. Typically teams don’t play the same goalie on consecutive days, but Sullivan could try to ride his momentum with Shesterkin, especially while Jonathan Quick is hurt. Dylan Garand has backed up the past three games but has yet to make his NHL debut.
Sullivan said going into the road trip that the team has done a good job managing Shesterkin’s workload. This could be a time to give him a bit more responsibility. The coach said it’s possible he plays again against the Lightning.