Tuukka Rask made 30 saves for his second shutout of the season as the Boston Bruins defeated the New York Rangers 3-0 on Thursday.
Patrice Bergeron, David Krejci and Loui Eriksson all scored and Torey Krug supplied two assists for the Bruins, who have won five straight games.
Cam Talbot allowed all three goals on 32 shots for the Rangers, who have dropped their last two games on the heels of a five-game winning streak.
Boston is now 6-0-2 in their last eight meetings with New York.
Bergeron put the Bruins on the board four minutes into the game after he whacked the rebound of Dougie Hamilton's shot through Talbot's legs.
Boston increased their lead to 2-0 on Krejci's redirection of Krug's slap pass 2:49 into the middle stanza.
Each team had good scoring chances following the goal during the second. Rick Nash wasted a prime opportunity as his shot went wide on a breakaway less than seven minutes in, then Krejci had his shot in tight stuffed by Talbot's pad almost two minutes later.
Eriksson made it a 3-0 game with 10:11 remaining as he settled the rebound of Zdeno Chara's point shot down in front and lifted it into the top of the net.
Meanwhile, Rask stopped seven shots in the first period, made 14 saves in the middle frame and turned aside nine offerings over the final 20 minutes for the win.
Game Notes
Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli announced during the first intermission that rookie forward David Pastrnak will stay with the team for the rest of the season ... Rask posted his 25th career shutout ... Boston also won five straight games from Oct. 30 to Nov. 10 ... Talbot is the first Rangers goaltender other than Henrik Lundqvist to start against the Bruins since Kevin Weeks did so on April 8, 2006, ending a string of 35 straight games, which includes the postseason ... The two teams will continue their season series at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 4.
[SportsNetwork.com]
