Goals, goals and more goals for Bruins in 10-2 romp over Rangers

BOSTON — Wins have rarely come easily for the Bruins this season. But on Saturday at TD Garden, the B’s lived a charmed life in an all-stars-aligned 10-2 pounding of the New York Rangers. It was a thoroughly entertaining day for Bruins fans, not so much for the blue-clad Rangers fans who traveled north on I-95 for the festivities.

The Rangers, who had actually been a good road team (13-8-2 coming into the day) had scored a lopsided win over the B’s on Black Friday but it was nothing like the romp the B’s dished on the Blueshirts on Saturday.

Both Pavel Zacha and Marat Khusnutdinov (four goals) notched their first career hat tricks — the first time the B’s have ever done that at home and the first time they’ve done it anywhere since 1964 — while Fraser Minten scored a pair and David Pastrnak assisted on six of the 10 goals. Pastrnak’s half-dozen helpers were tied for a team record with Bobby Orr and Ken Hodge.

Adding to the family fun was Jeremy Swayman stopping a penalty shot when it was still a game, barely, and Mark Kastelic scoring a clean knockdown of Sam Carrick, a true tough guy.

Coupled with their solid 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames on Thursday, the B’s have regained some of their Causeway Way Street juice after they had a damaging 1-3-1 homestand prior to the Christmas break.

While the B’s were good, the Rangers, without starting goalie Igor Shesterkin and top defenseman Adam Fox, were the opposite of that, succumbing to the B’s smothering puck pressure all over the ice.

But it took the B’s, wearing their white sweaters that harkened back to the 1980s, a couple of minutes to get going. After spotting the Rangers the first goal of the game, the B’s dominated the opening period and went into the first intermission up, 3-1.

The Blueshirts goal was of the self-inflicted variety, coming at 1:24. A Bruins clear-out attempt was deflected into the middle of the ice to defenseman Matthew Robertson. He flipped an innocuous shot that Swayman muffed with his glove. Artemi Panarin collected it behind the net, fed it out front to Mika Zibanejad in the mid-slot, and just like that, it was 1-0.

For a solid minute, it looked the B’s were going to be in for a game. The Rangers, generous to fault, had different ideas. First, Alex Steeves had a clean breakaway that Jonathan Quick managed to turn away. He was not so fortunate on the next one. From behind his net, Nikita Zadorov started a chip relay along the boards, first up to Pastrnak and then Henri Jokiharju and finally up to Khusnutdinov. The young Russian muscled his way past Braden Schneider to break into the clear and he beat Quick with a sharp wrister at 2:31.

Zacha gave them a lead at 7:16. After Charlie McAvoy thwarted a Ranger breakout in the neutral zone, Zacha broke in on what was essentially a 1-on-2. Cutting right to left, he faked a drop pass but then kept it on his forehand, twisting up defenseman Will Borgen, who fell on his backside. With the extra space, Zacha calmly traveled further into the circle and beat Quick to the far side.

The B’s grinded away on the Rangers after that but it appeared as though visitors would get to the locker room down by just a goal, even after the B’s were given a lengthy 5-on-3 at the end of the period. The B’s stormed the net on the two-man advantage but it appeared the New Yorkers had somehow survived. But with most of the players from the two teams down their respective tunnels and ABC having already cut to its intermission show, there was a review taking place. As it turned out, Zacha’s shot from the side of the net just made it over the line before Borgen knocked it out with 33 seconds left in the period. It was Zacha’s 12th of the year.

The teams had to file back out — at least some of the personnel did — to finish out the period and the B’s still on a power play. They managed a couple of more chances but couldn’t draw more blood.

But the B’s kept outworking the Rangers early in the second, pushing the lead to 4-1 at 2:12. Jonathan Aspirot did a good job of keeping the puck in at the blue line and the B’s maintained possession until, from behind the net, Viktor Arvidsson fed an oncoming Minten down the slot and the rookie whistled his ninth of the year through Quick.

New York had a glimmer of hope to get back in the game when Vincent Trocheck slipped away for a breakaway and Aspirot was called for an infraction, giving the Ranger a penalty shot. On the freebie, Trocheck took a serpentine, right-to-left approach to the net but Swayman easily blocked away his chance.

Then came a terrific 200-foot goal by the B’s. In the defensive zone, Zadorov knocked 6-foot-9 Matt Rempe off the puck with ease and sent the puck up the ice. Once in the zone, the B’s again kept the puck away from the Rangers at will until Pastrnak fed Khusnutdinov for his second of the game and seventh of the year.

At 11:26, Zacha completed the hat trick, beating Quick from long range and that was it for the veteran netminder. The crowd must have been unaware the late second-period goal went to Zacha because it took forever for the first hat to flutter down from the stands, but more fell once it did.

Garbage time was officially on.

With Spencer Martin between the pipes, the puck was dropped for the ensuing faceoff and the Rangers’ tough guy in Carrick tried to save some face for New York by dropping the gloves with Kastelic. Even that didn’t go well. Kastelic scored with a clean knockdown punch and then earned an extra 10 for an unnecessary late punch when Carrick was down.

The teams traded goals, J.T. Miller for the Rangers on a power play, and McAvoy answered with his second of the year before the second period was out.

The only thing left to accomplish in the third was to get Khusnutdinov the hattie and, of course, they made it happen. The B’s won a faceoff, Pastrnak let go a long shot and Khusnutdinov deflected it home.