On a night when the roaring cheers from their fans reverberated throughout Madison Square Garden for the first time this season, when every hit was echoed by a round of applause and every save received a standing ovation, the Rangers put on a show worthy of the 356-day wait.
With the impassioned reactions from behind the glass and the traditional “Potvin Sucks!” jeers from Up in the Blue Seats (see what I did there?), the Bruins got a harsh reminder of what home-ice advantage feels like as the Rangers rolled over them in a dominant 6-2 win Friday night in front of 1,800 fans.
As the Garden came alive, so did the Rangers.
“It sounded like 20,000 [fans], not 2,000,” Adam Fox said after the win, which improved the Rangers to 7-8-3.
The game was busted wide open when the Rangers potted three goals in the second period. Their highest-scoring performance of the season marked the Rangers’ first win over Boston in three tries this season.
An irrefutable spirit, toughness and tenacity exuded from the Rangers’ play. And with every “Let’s Go Rangers!” chant that boomed, the Blueshirts’ will to win became stronger and stronger. It hasn’t been the start to the season that the team and the fans wanted or expected, but the Rangers welcomed their loyal supporters back by skating Boston out of the Garden.
“I’m standing there during in the national anthem, I had some goosebumps and some energy that haven’t had in a long time,” said Ryan Strome, whose second goal of the season, early in the second period, made it a 2-0 game. “It’s been a sort of challenging time in the world for everybody, and I think for 2,000 people to have a night out and for us to put on a good performance was a good thing for New York.”
The Bruins stayed competitive following Strome’s tally when their captain, Patrice Bergeron, put them on the board 2 ¹/₂ minutes later. But Boston’s Brad Marchand — who got his own warm welcome at the Garden — was called for high sticking and Colin Blackwell redirected a point shot from Fox on the power play to make it 3-1 at 18:52 for the Rangers’ fourth-straight game with a man-advantage tally.
A no-look wrister from Chris Kreider with less than a minute left in the second wrapped a bow on one of the Rangers’ most commanding periods of the season.
Pavel Buchnevich and Jonny Brodzinski, skating in his second game as a Ranger since his call-up from the taxi squad Wednesday, chipped in a goal apiece in the third to seal the deal.
“[The Bruins] get that one [in the second] to make it 2-1, I thought they were coming,” head coach David Quinn said. “We had some lucky breaks on the penalty kill, we get the huge power play goal, and Kreids gets that goal right away. … I really liked an awful lot about our game tonight.”
Julien Gauthier registered his second NHL goal off a hard wrist shot from the left circle to make it 1-0 and ignite the first Rangers goal song since March 7, 2020, at 13:03 in the first period.
“You knew there were going to be fans in the building, but I don’t think any of us expected the impact they would make,” Quinn said. “They were incredibly loud and passionate. You hear the number of people that might be in here, think ‘That’ll be nice but won’t have that much of an impact.’ They had an impact tonight. … We certainly look forward to the day we can have this place full the way it normally is.”
The Rangers seemed to feed off the noise and approval as they dialed up the physicality in the opening 20 minutes, out-hitting the Bruins 17-8.
The fans had missed the action, and the Rangers seemingly wanted to make up for the lost time.