Late surge lifts Bruins over Rangers in season opener

Steve Conroy, Boston Herald on Sep 29, 2026

Published in Hockey

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BOSTON — Fraser Minten wasted no time in earning some of his money.

The Boston Bruins showered the 22-year-old center with riches in the offseason, giving him a seven-year contract worth $7.2 million a season.

And with 3:46 left in the third period in a scoreless tie with the New York Rangers, Minten scored the game-winner on a pure snipe to power the Bruins to a 3-0 season-opening victory at TD Garden.

Mason Lohrei made a great play at center ice to glove down a get and get it to Minten in the middle of the ice. Minten crossed the blue line and from a distance, he ripped a wrist shot over Ranger goalie Igor Shesterkin’s blocker for the 1-0 lead.

The news continued on the upswing. The B’s big offseason acquisition, JJ Peterka, scored with 2:52 left on a great move to get free and then tuck it between Shesterkin’s pads for the pad goal.

Mark Kastelic salted it away with an empty-netter with 2:31 remaining.

Jeremy Swayman made 24 saves to nail down the shutout.

Shesterkin was terrific in the second period and then Swayman stood tall with two successive stops midway through the third. After Connor Clifton’s stick broke at the offensive blue line, Pavel Dorofeyev — the former Vegas Golden Knight and the Rangers’ big offseason acquisition — took off on a breakaway and then Swayman robbed J.T. Miller on the follow-up.

Pavel Zacha then hit the post, the second pipe the B’s hit on the night. It was that kind of night for the B’s — or so it seemed. But the floodgates opened just in time.

The scoreless first period did not hold a ton of entertainment for either sets of fans in the building – the Blueshirts, as usual, had a healthy helping of followers at TD Garden. The teams each had one power play and they both looked like vintage September man-advantages, as did TD Garden ice.

Of the two teams, the B’s had a slight edge in bona fide chances and held an 7-5 shot edge. Shesterkin was called upon to make a couple of decent saves but the B’s best chance, a partial break by new captain David Pastrnak, died on the vine before a he got a shot off.

The highlight of the period may have been a thunderous hit along the boards by Nikita Zadorov on Oliver Bjorkstrand, who took a while to get up but was able to shake it off. Through two periods, Zadorov had a game-high seven hits while former Ranger and new Bruin Will Borgen had four.

The action picked up considerably in the second period, especially from a Bruin perspective. It started off with Morgan Geekie hitting the crossbar on a partial break. Then Shesterkin stuffed Zacha in a breakaway. Pastrnak also turned Ranger defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov inside out on a move puck could not get his backdoor pass through to his intended target.

The B’s also had another great chance when, off the rush, Marat Khusnutdinov made a terrific pass in tight to Minten but the second-year player could not lift it over Shesterkin’s blocker.

The Ranger netminder seemed to be just warming. He stopped Pastrnak on a 2-on-1 with Peterka and the Blueshirt goalie was in a groove.

While the B’s had the best chances of the second, it was not totally one-sided. The Rangers took advantage of a few Bruin turnovers to establish some zone time and actually held an 8-7 shot advantage in the second, but Swayman and Shesterkin headed into the third period in a 0-0 deadlock.

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