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Rangers End Season with Loss to Bruins

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Boston Bruins eliminate the New York Rangers in Game 5 of the conference semifinals in a score of 3-1
Boston Bruins eliminate the New York Rangers in Game 5 of the conference semifinals in a score of 3-1
The Bruins put to rest any talk about another meltdown by eliminating the New York Rangers on Saturday at TD Garden with a 3-1 victory in Game 5 of the conference semifinals another hear breaker for Rangers fans.

Gregory Campbell scored twice Saturday, including an empty-netter with less than a minute left, and Torey Krug scored his fourth goal in five Stanley Cup Playoff games. Tuukka Rask made it hold up with 28 saves, including a lead-saving stop on Ryan Callahan’s breakaway in the third period, as the Bruins landed a date with the Penguins, who also needed five games to dispatch the Ottawa Senators.

The Bruins showed how well-rounded they are against the Rangers. They had nine different goal-scorers in the series, but only three are featured in their group of top-six forwards. The Bruins got seven goals from their blue line, including the four from Krug and two more fromJohnny Boychuk, who scored the game-winner in Game 2. Their fourth line contributed with four goals, including game-winners from Campbell and Daniel Paille. Boston’s fourth line actually had one more goal than their top-two lines combined.

New York did not have everybody going, not even close. Sure, the Rangers got goals from nine different players as well, but nobody had more than Derek Stepan’s two. New York’s blue line was outscored by Boston’s blue line, 7-2. Its fourth line revamped to be grittier after Game 3 was shut out. In fact, that fourth line of Kris Newbury, Micheal Haley and Derek Dorsett, plus the Rangers’ third defense pairing of Roman Hamrlik and Steve Eminger, were victimized by the Bruins’ fourth line on the game-winning goal with 6:19 to play in the second period.

The fact that Boston had to use three rookie defensemen for the first four games before getting Dennis Seidenberg back for Game 5 could have been a crutch that tilted the edge to the Rangers. Instead, it played heavily into the Bruins’ favor because of Krug, who scored three of his goals on the power play and became the first rookie defenseman in the post-expansion era to score four goals in his first five career playoff games. Krug, who tied the game Saturday with a power-play goal 3:48 into the second period, was playing in the American Hockey League up until two days before the conference semifinals began. Now, he’s the toast of Boston.

The Rangers’ best player all series was goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who made 30 saves on Saturday, including several showstoppers, to finish the playoffs with a 2.14 goals-against average and .934 save percentage. New York’s problem was its lack of depth. As a result, the Rangers had very little in the way of an answer for when Boston surged. That much was evident in overtime of Game 1. It never really changed, even though the Rangers won Game 4 at Madison Square Garden. “I don’t think we got to the level that we needed to,” Rangers coach John Tortorella said. “I think they’re a deeper team than we are, so we needed to play at a different level. We needed to get a number of different things from different players more consistently.”They deserved to win. They were the better team. They deserved to win.” And now the Bruins get a chance to see what everybody around the NHL is talking about. They get a chance to get up close and personal with the Penguins and play for the right to go to the Stanley Cup Final.

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