Brilliant Jonathan Quick helps Rangers end 4-game skid with 2-1 win against Bruins
No Igor Shesterkin? No problem for the New York Rangers, who rode the back of goalie Jonathan Quick to a 2-1 win against the Boston Bruins at Madison Square Garden on Thursday.
The 38-year-old was brilliant filling in for the injured Shesterkin, finishing with 32 saves. Quick stopped all 12 shots he faced in the third period when the Rangers were hanging on to a one-goal lead.
The win was the 399th of Quick’s NHL career and ended a four-game losing streak for the Rangers (17-19-1). And it came in the first game of 2025 and the first after Shesterkin landed on injured reserve with an upper-body issue two days prior.
Mika Zibanejad and Brett Berard scored for the Rangers in the first period and it was just enough on a night when Quick outdueled Boston goalie Jeremy Swayman, who was also very good, making 25 saves.
The Rangers are now 13-3-0 when scoring first this season and 11-2-0 when leading after the first period.
Elias Lindholm scored the only goal against Quick.
“We played a great team game. Especially there in the third period,” Quick said.
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New York Rangers 2 — Boston Bruins 1
The Rangers got exactly the start they hoped for, scoring the first two goals and taking a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.
They also had some good fortune, first when Oliver Wahlstrom’s left-wing snap shot caught iron just three minutes into play. And then a poor clearing attempt by Swayman led to a turnover and the first goal of the game.
Chris Kreider came away with the interception and quickly started the scoring sequence, when Reilly Smith shoveled a shot off Swayman’s glove and toward the goal line, where Zibanejad pushed it into the net at 9:48.
The goal was Zibanejad’s first in nine games and the point was the 700th of his NHL career.
Three minutes later, Berard took a chip pass from Filip Chytil and flew up right wing on a 2-on-1 rush. Berard then wired his third goal of the season top shelf from the right circle to make it 2-0 at 12:53.
As beautiful as that goal was, Berard’s celebration of his first career goal at The Garden might have been even more memorable, when he slid on his knee and screamed at the top of his lungs.
“It was super special — kind of lost control of my body,” Berard explained to reporters postgame. Some of the guys were giving me some crap for it, but yeah I don’t know it was super special feeling kind of everything you dream of as a kid. It was awesome.”
The two-goal lead held up after Quick and Swayman exchanged terrific saves before the period ended. First, Quick exploded left to right across his crease to stone Morgan Geekie on a 3-on-2 one-timer at 16:12. Then Swayman robbed Smith, who ripped a shot from between the circles in full flight after accepting a perfect feed from Kreider at 18:30.
The Bruins had a far greater territorial advantage in the second period, clearly the better team for most of it. But they only scored one goal on 13 shots because Quick was sensational.
He also got some help early in the period when Braden Schneider swept the puck off the goal line at 2:40 following a wild scramble in front of the Rangers net.
Less than five minutes later, Quick had the Bruins literally shaking their heads, looking to the Garden’s famous spoked roof and in the case of John Beecher, smirking to himself after an incredible sequence of saves at 7:28. In a matter of seconds, Quick stoned Mark Kastelic on a backhand shot from the slot and then quickly re-positioned himself to deny Justin Brazeau point blank. Quick closed out the sequence with an eye-popping diving glove save to rob Beecher.
The MSG crowd erupted into chants of “Quick-ie! Quick-ie!” But after the media timeout, the Bruins scored at 7:57, when Lindholm buried a seam pass from David Pastrnak for his seventh goal of the season.
Two minutes later, it was Swayman’s turn to shine. The Bruins goalie made rapid-fire saves against Chytil and Will Cuylle. Before the period ended, Swayman made another gem of a stop on an Alexis Lafreniere redirection.
In between, Quick dazzled again with an outstanding pad save on Charlie McAvoy’s left-wing bomb.
Still leading 2-1 in the third period, the Rangers were on their heels, but Quick made five saves early on against the surging Bruins. Then Swayman did his part by denying Vincent Trocheck on an odd-man rush a bit more than four minutes into the period. Swayman also made another excellent save at 12:54 on another Lafreniere redirection to keep it a one-goal game.
With 3:42 remaining in regulation, Quick made a timely save on Andrew Peeke’s shot through a maze of players in front. Then Quick made a huge save when Nikita Zadorov worked through several stick checks and wristed a shot on net from between the circles.
“That’s what he does. He was amazing for us,” Schneider said.
Quick and the Rangers took it home from there, winning for just the second time in their past nine games.
Next up the Rangers play a pair of matinee games this weekend, in Washington against the Capitals on Saturday, followed by a game Sunday against the Chicago Blackhawks.
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