BOSTON — As the Bruins skated off the ice after the second period, the TD Garden crowd, which hadn’t had much energy throughout, unleashed some hearty boos on the home team.
When TNT made the Bruins and Rangers their Black Friday matinee matchup, this couldn’t have been what they were hoping for from the Original 6 matchup.
The shorthanded Bruins came out flat and by the time they found their game, it was too late as they fell to New York, 6-2.
The Bruins are back at TD Garden on Saturday for another Original Six matchup when they host the Red Wings at 7.
Boston looked out of synch to open the game. Missing David Pastrnak and Pavel Zacha, who were out with undisclosed ailments, the Bruins dressed a lineup that hadn’t practiced or even done a morning skate together.
Casey Mittelstadt, who’d been out for three weeks, was activated from injured reserve right into the Boston lineup on a line with Marat Khustnutdinov and newly called-up Georgii Merkulov.
Artemi Panarin scored on the Rangers’ second shot of the game. On the rush, he fired a wrist shot from the right-wing faceoff circle past Joonas Korpisalo’s slow-to-react glove, 3:28 into the game.
The Bruins thought they’d tied the game with 13:08 left, but the referee ruled and replay confirmed that Riley Tufte had interfered with Igor Shesterkin.
Carson Soucy doubled the edge with 7:58 left in the first. The veteran defenseman whistled a one-timer by Korpisalo to make it 2-0.
Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm was given a double-minor for high-sticking late in the second period. Artemi Panarin scored two power-play goals for the Rangers during his sentence to put the game away.
The Bruins found some energy in the third period. Mittelstadt broke up Shesterkin’s shutout bid early in the period, jamming a puck home through traffic, 4:07 into the third period.
Just 1:32 later, Boston cut their deficit to 4-2 when Morgan Geekie tipped Henri Jokiharu’s shot out of the air and by Shesterkin to make it 4-2 with 14:11 left.
But that was as close as the Bruins got.
The Rangers added an empty-netter and another after that to complete the rout.
