Clinching no cinch for Rangers in 2-1 loss

Clinching no cinch for Rangers in 2-1 loss

Ron Antonelli/New York Daily News

Stu Bickel and the Rangers find themselves on the wrong end of Daniel Paille(r.) and the Bruins Sunday night.

BRUINS 2, NY RANGERS 1

The Rangers entered and emerged from Sunday night's 2-1 loss to the Bruins in the same favorable position: just one point from clinching the top seed in the Eastern Conference for the first time since the 1993-94 Stanley Cup season.

That made this a unique defeat to process.

On the one hand, the Rangers (50-22-7, 107 points) coughed up a 1-0 lead, wasted Marian Gaborik's 40th goal of the season and had their four-game winning streak snapped. On the other hand, they finished strong, outshooting Boston 19-3 in the third period. They need only one point in their three remaining games to take the top seed and home-ice advantage through the East finals following Pittsburgh's 6-4 loss to the Flyers Sunday afternoon.

Tomorrow we'll be positive, well come back to work and Im sure itll be a little easier, (but) right now its a bad taste, said Brian Boyle, who played with an effective edge to match the physical Bruins but said the puck didn't feel as good on his stick as it had in the previous five games, when he scored three goals. Were not going to get on each other and fall apart as a team, obviously. Were going to stick together, but its tough to lose.

The Penguins (48-25-6, 102 points) could give the Rangers the point they need by losing any of their final three games, including Thursday nights head-to-head with the Rangers in Pittsburgh, but the Blueshirts arent going to wait for help with the Flyers next in Philadelphia Tuesday night and the Capitals visiting the Garden for Saturday night's regular-season finale.

Sunday night, the Bruins clinched the No. 2 seed in the East and avoided a regular-season sweep by the Rangers with 33 saves from two-time Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Tim Thomas. They answered Marian Gaboriks first-period breakaway goal which gave him his third career 40-goal season with Dennis Seidenbergs bomb from the point with 16 minutes remaining in the second period. The Bruins followed that with Patrice Bergerons power-play goal eight minutes later, after Tyler Seguin forced a Dan Girardi turnover. Henrik Lundqvist (19 saves) was caug ht off-guard after the quick change of possession.

Still, Girardi and the Rangers were not discouraged.

Other than a couple mistakes, I thought we were pretty stingy out there, Girardi said. I don't know how many shots they ended up with, low 20s (21), that's pretty good.

The problem was they couldnt solve Thomas, who denied Artem Anisimov from the slot after the Rangers had pulled Lundqvist for the extra attacker late in the third.

It's the type of game, that patience of the game, where you can't open yourself up, and its the team that makes the mistake, said Tortorella, who separated Brad Richards and Gaborik and moved Ryan Callahan around, trying to spread his playmakers away from Boston defenseman Zdeno Chara, who marked Gaborik all night long. Theres gonna be a lot (of games) like this (in the playoffs). If we play like this, well win our games. We'll find a way to win our games. Tonight we didnt, but I think we did a lot of good things.

Before the game, Tortorella was asked whether it would mean something if the Rangers locked up the top spot on Sunday.

No, Tortorella said.

Did he bring it up with the team? No.

So it's not a factor? No.

That's it? Good, Tortorella said, not waiting for an answer and walking out on a 12-second press conference.

They haven't locked it up yet.