Thanksgiving may be done and over with, but the NHL's full plate of games Friday proved to be quite fruitful. Puns aside, the Boston Bruins stole a win from the New York Rangers in Friday's early afternoon game marketed as the league's holiday affair. The loss marks the third defeat in five games for what once was one of the NHL's top teams, who will play the Flyers just over 24 hours later Saturday afternoon.
NHL scores 2015: Last minute goals compel Boston to 4-3 win over New York
The late victory sealed up the Bruins fifth win in a row.
Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
New York's biggest loss might be the injury to forward Derek Stepan, who broke his ribs on a hit that somehow resulted in a Bruins power play after the whole thing went down. The Rangers alternate captain has 12 points on the year so far and will probably miss extended time with the break.
Beleskey hit on Stepan pic.twitter.com/bl6pHfvb4V
— Stephanie (@myregularface) November 27, 2015 Boston, on the other hand, made out quite well, limiting the Rangers to no points with their last minute goal and pushing their win streak to five games. Down 3-2 with four minutes remaining in the game, Boston netted two goals just moments apart on furious pressure that New York could not sustain. A late holding penalty by Jesper Fast cost the Rangers on Ryan Spooner's power play goal that started the comeback.
The killer was David Krejci's bomb from the blue line, taking a lucky Boston bounce off a Ranger stick and deflecting past goaltender Henrik Lundqvist for the 4-3 score.
The two teams seem to be heading in opposite directions. For New York, their luck has finally caught up to them. After sustaining a PDO of above 106 per War-On-Ice.com, the pendulum is starting to swing the other way, bringing New York back to earth. The Bruins have surprised this season, keeping pace near the top of the Atlantic Division over the last month after many wrote them off after a horrific offseason. With a Canadian road trip up next on their schedule, three wins to start the month of December can keep Boston in the conversation and at the top of their division.
Scores
Boston Bruins 4, New York Rangers 3
Philadelphia Flyers 3, Nashville Predators 2 (OT)
Chicago Blackhawks 3, Anaheim Ducks 2 (OT)
Montreal Canadiens 3, New Jersey Devils 2 (SO)
Columbus Blue Jackets 2, Pittsburgh Penguins 1 (OT)
Detroit Red Wings 4, Edmonton Oilers 3 (OT)
Florida Panthers 3, New York Islanders 2 (SO)
Dallas Stars 3, Vancouver Canucks 2 (SO)
Arizona Coyotes 2, Calgary Flames 1 (OT)
3 things we learned
1. Columbus and Pittsburgh do not like each other one bit
Watch out, Philadelphia, Columbus might just overtake your spot as Public Enemy No. 1 after this game. There's never really been any love between the two neighboring state teams, but Friday's game had the intensity and the scuffles that define a hot-blooded rivalry. Both teams had 17 penalty minutes tacked onto them over the course of the game, but the biggest dispute came after Sidney Crosby took a cross-check to the back of the head from Brandon Dubinsky that knocked him out of the game for a while. Even star Evgeni Malkin got his gloves dirty with a few swipes at some Blue Jackets after the vicious hit.
this game has gone fully out of control pic.twitter.com/vp1VoTB5of
— Stephanie (@myregularface) November 28, 2015 2. Chicago had their best win to date this season
Anaheim looked to coast away with a 2-0 shutout of the Blackhawks at home, but a dubious penalty drawn by Andrew Shaw changed the game and helped Chicago back into a match they had no business being in. Marian Hossa scored on the ensuing power play and Duncan Keith added the tying goal with 27 seconds left to take the game to overtime. Artem Anisimov had the Blackhawks winning goal in overtime, giving Anaheim their third loss in five games for their worst collapse of the year so far.
3. Dylan Larkin still leads rookies in goals
How about this kid? #SCtop10 https://t.co/bNQcGHOAwI
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) November 28, 2015 Not long after Jack Eichel got even with Larkin and three others at the top of the rookie leaderboard in goals, the Red Wings forward put some distance between himself and the rest of the class with this pretty goal that extended Detroit's lead over the Oilers. Larkin now has nine goals on the year and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.
Impact Moment
The cross-check by Brandon Dubinsky caused quite a stir in their game against the Penguins. Decide for yourself if it was worth more than a two-minute minor.
Dubinsky will have a hearing with player safety for the hit.
Columbus's Brandon Dubinsky will have a hearing tomorrow for cross-checking Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby.
— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) November 28, 2015 Stat of the Night
Kane gets an assist to extend his point streak to 18 consecutive games. Ties Eddie Olczyk and Phil Kessel for streak for US-born player.
— Tracey Myers (@TramyersCSN) November 28, 2015 Post to Post
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