Jonathan Quick made 32 saves and achieved his 399th career regular-season win as the New York Rangers, playing at home, broke a four-game losing streak with a 2-1 victory over the Boston Bruins on Thursday night.
Promoted to New York’s top goalie while Igor Shesterkin recovers from an upper-body injury, Quick secured his first win since defeating the Montreal Canadiens on November 30. He is just one win away from becoming the third active goalie, alongside Minnesota’s Marc-Andre Fleury and Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky, to reach 400 career victories. After giving up 14 goals in his last three outings, Quick helped the Rangers secure only their fifth win in 20 games (5-15-0) and end a four-game home losing streak.
Mika Zibanejad and rookie Brett Berard both scored in the first period, just 3 minutes and 5 seconds apart, despite the Rangers starting slowly.
Quick was beaten only by Elias Lindholm early in the second period but made a spectacular diving stick save on a slap shot from Charlie McAvoy with 5:27 left in that period. He also stopped two shots in quick succession from David Pastrnak early in the third and made a glove save on a long-range shot from Andrew Peeke with 3:45 remaining.
Boston’s goalie, Jeremy Swayman, recorded 25 saves.
The Rangers opened the scoring with 10:12 left in the first period after Boston defenseman Nikita Zadorov mishandled the puck near the net. After Zadorov’s clearance attempt went awry, Zibanejad capitalized on a backhand pass from Reilly Smith to score an easy tap-in.
New York doubled its lead due to another mistake by a Boston defenseman. After Mason Lohrei lost the puck at the blue line, Filip Chytil assisted Berard on a 2-on-1 break. Berard sped down the right side, paused at the faceoff circle, and shot over Swayman’s arm before Peeke could close in, making it 2-0.
Quick preserved his shutout with a diving save on Johnny Beecher with 12:35 to play, but just 32 seconds later, Lindholm got past Smith near the right faceoff circle and scored off a cross-ice pass from Pastrnak.
