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Rangers-Bruins Preview

Jan 8, 2010 - 7:03 PM By TOM CASTRO STATS Senior Editor

New York (21-17-6) at Boston (22-14-7), 1:00 p.m. EDT

The Boston Bruins have not fared well against the New York Rangers this season. They'll try to change their fortunes in the series as the teams meet at TD Garden, where Boston has beaten New York four straight times.

The banged-up Bruins and Rangers face off Saturday afternoon in their second matchup in five days, with Boston looking for its first victory in three tries against New York in 2009-10.

The Bruins (22-14-7) fell 3-2 to the Rangers on Monday, as Christopher Higgins scored the winner with 1:39 remaining and Henrik Lundqvist made 26 saves for New York.

Lundqvist stopped 29 shots in a 1-0 home victory over Boston on Nov. 1, and is 12-3-2 with a 1.38 goals-against average and four shutouts in 17 games against Boston. He will almost certainly be in net Saturday after rookie Chad Johnson played admirably in a 2-1 shootout loss to Atlanta on Thursday night.

Johnson, making his first NHL start, had 31 saves as the Rangers pushed their point streak to five games. New York (21-17-6) has gone 7-1-3 in its last 11 to climb back into the playoff picture.

"We've just got to keep on moving on. I'm not going to get negative about this, it's a good point for us and we'll move on and go to Boston," said coach John Tortorella, whose team had a four-game road winning streak snapped and will be playing for the third time in four nights.

The Rangers have not been nearly as successful at TD Garden of late, dropping four in a row by one goal. Three of those defeats and each of the last two came by 1-0 scores, with Tim Thomas making 31 saves in the last meeting there April 4.

Boston couldn't overcome NHL-leading Chicago on Thursday, falling 5-2 at home. The Bruins grabbed a 2-0 lead midway through the first period on goals from Blake Wheeler and Miroslav Satan, but the Blackhawks dominated the remainder of the game.

"Maybe we let our foot off the gas when it was 2-0," Wheeler said. "With a team like Chicago, you've got to be tasting blood at that point. You've got to be thinking of making three or four."

The Bruins were outshot 36-21 and Thomas was chased midway through the second period after allowing four goals on 24 shots.

The worse news for Boston was the loss of Marc Savard to an apparent leg injury when he got twisted up against the boards 28 seconds into the game. He didn't return, and coach Claude Julien said Savard would have an MRI on Friday.

It was the third straight game that Boston lost a key player. Patrice Bergeron broke his thumb Monday and Andrew Ference hurt his groin Tuesday.

The Bruins did get Milan Lucic back from a left ankle sprain that had kept him out since Nov. 25.

"It's not an easy task, and we were exposed a little bit tonight," coach Claude Julien said, while insisting that the team would not use injuries as an excuse. "I don't care what happens, it will never be because of injuries. But let's be honest and realistic: Injuries are making it hard to do what we're trying to do."

Lundqvist allowed two goals or fewer in 13 of his past 16 games. Thomas went 3-1-0 with a 1.25 GAA in four games before the rough performance Thursday.