New York Rangers fall in overtime as Artemi Panarin suffers an injury

It would figure that the 700th game between the New York Rangers and the Boston Bruins would be interesting. After some end to end action and some video reviews, the Rangers fall to the Bruins 3-2 in overtime.

It is not surprising that the Rangers were involved in another close game, as coming into tonight’s contest, Each of the Rangers’ last nine games, and nine of the team’s 11 games this season, have been decided by two or fewer goals. Six of those contests and have been decided by one goal.

In addition to the final score, the biggest news of the night is the injury status of Blueshirts star Artemi Panarin. He missed a large portion of the third period after being shaken up late in the second period. Panarin did come on to man the power play with seven minutes left in the game. Even in the short amount of time, Panarin played in the third period, it was apparent that he was skating with a great deal of discomfort.

After the game, head coach David Quinn said in his post-game zoom conference that “Panarin has a little bit of a lower-body injury and will be reassessed.” If Panarin misses anytime, this would come as a big blow to the young Rangers team.

Julian Gauthier scored his first Ranger and NHL goal to get the scoring started. Kevin Rooney tapped in a loose puck late in the second period to tie the game that eventually went into overtime.

Alexandar Georgiev got the start in the net on his 25th birthday. However, it was quite different than the game he played last year on his birthday when he stopped 55 of 56 shots and earned a win on Feb. 10, 2019, vs. Toronto. Georgiev’s 55 saves were the second-most in one game in franchise history.

The first place Bruins came into the game red-hot, going 7-0-1 in their last eight games. Their win tonight is their fourth straight.

The Rangers and the Bruins will be seeing a lot of each other as the Rangers will play four home games against the Bruins in February, which marks the first time in franchise history that the Blueshirts will play four regular-season home games against the same opponent in one calendar month.

The two teams meet again on Friday night.