Bruins crush Rangers to spoil J.T. Miller’s brilliant two-goal return
BOSTON — David Pastrnak scored three goals and added an assist to lead the Boston Bruins to a 6-3 victory over New York on Saturday, spoiling J.T. Miller’s return to the Rangers.
Charlie McAvoy, Charlie Coyle and Pavel Zacha also scored for Boston, which snapped a two-game skid. Jeremy Swayman finished with 22 saves.
Miller scored twice in his first game with the Rangers one day after they reacquired him from Vancouver in a multiplayer deal that sent Filip Chytil to the Canucks.
Jonny Brodzinski also scored and Igor Shesterkin had 19 saves as New York lost its third straight in regulation after a 7-0-3 stretch.
After Miller’s rising one-timer from the slot made it 1-1 at 10:55 of the first period, Pastrnak put Boston ahead for good when he slipped a shot past Shesterkin with 2:51 left.
Coyle tipped Andrew Peeke’s shot from the right point over Shesterkin’s glove to make it 3-1 at 3:39 of the second.
Pastrnak got his second early in the third and completed his 18th career hat trick with an empty-netter for his team-leading 27th goal.
Takeaways
Rangers: New York began the day sixth in the Metropolitan Division and 13th in the conference, and need to start stringing together more wins.
Bruins: It was a nice turnaround for Swayman after he gave up seven goals in a loss against Buffalo on Tuesday.
Key moment
After Miller’s second sliced it to 4-2 early in the third, Pastrnak scored on a slap shot 46 seconds later.
Key stat
Despite struggling on the road, the Bruins improved to 11-2-1 in their last 14 games at TD Garden.
Up next
Rangers host Vegas on Sunday, and Bruins host Minnesota on Tuesday.
