Jonathan Quick Carries Rangers To Crucial Victory With Igor Shesterkin Injured

The New York Rangers snapped a four-game losing streak on Thursday night after defeating the Boston Bruins 2-1.

Through this recent skid, the Rangers have struggled in the first period as they continue to fall into early holes they are unable to get out of.

New York flipped the script with a goal from Mika Zibanejad less than 10 minutes into the contest.

Up to that point, Zibanejad hadn’t scored for eight games straight, so the fact he was the one to find the back of the net brought a jolt of energy to the bench.

“It was awesome,” Braden Schneider said of Mika Zibanejad scoring. “He plays hard and to see him bang one home like that is great. It’s well-deserved, he was going to the net hard. I thought he played a really good game today and it’s nice to see one go in for him.”

Brett Berard followed that up with a goal of his own, ripping the puck past Jeremy Swayman while showing a ton of emotion after scoring.

Berard is a player who has provided the Blueshirts with an offensive spark since being called up from the American Hockey League in November. Peter Laviolette has liked what he’s seen from the young forward.

“He’s a fiery guy,” Laviolette said about Brett Berard. “He plays the game that way. He had big hits. He was skating hard. He works relentlessly out there. It was nice to see a guy like that be rewarded.”

The Rangers’ MVP of the night was Jonathan Quick.

The 38-year-old goalie filled in for Igor Shesterkin who was placed on injured reserve this week and it’s safe to say he did an excellent job.

Quick recorded 32 saves on 33 shots and he made multiple spectacular stops that helped the Rangers maintain their small lead.

The Rangers fed off of Quick’s brilliance en route to this emotional win.

“He's so calm and collected,” Reilly Smith said. “He makes three huge saves in a row and he just goes about like nothing just happened. He does a good job kind of settling momentum for us. I think he did a huge job just pretty much taking a win for us tonight.

“He made some saves that probably would've went in and that changes the momentum of the game and gives us a little bit of a cushion.”

This game was gritty and ugly, but all that matters is the Rangers were able to come away with a much-needed victory.

“It's great to build confidence off of a win, but tomorrow we're going to wake up and we have a new challenge on Saturday with Washington,” Quick said.