New York
Vesey scored twice in a 29-second span in the first period in the Rangers’ 4-2 home win Wednesday night against Boston, the Rangers’ fifth straight win as they continue to distance themselves from their rough start to the year.
The multigoal game was the second of Vesey’s 97-game NHL career; he scored twice in Washington on Oct. 22, 2016. His two goals Wednesday doubled his account for the season.
Vesey now has five points (three goals, two assists) in four career games against the Bruins after deciding to go from Beantown for Broadway at the end of his highly publicized free agency two Augusts ago.
His first of the night came at 14:41 of the first after a Nick Holden shot caused a scramble in front, after which Pavel Buchnevich shot one off Tuukka Rask’s pad before Vesey finished, giving the Rangers (8-7-2) a 2-1 advantage.
Then as his first goal was still being announced at 15:10, Vesey pounced on a Kevin Shattenkirk shot, which had hit the outside of the net and potted it to double the Rangers’ lead.
Henrik Lundqvist made 31 saves on 33 shots as the Rangers held on in a scrambly third period until Rick Nash scored an empty-netter with 7.7 seconds left.
In three of the previous five games Vesey either had his ice time limited in the third period or was completely benched in the third. Against Columbus on Monday he played just 8:50 and rode the pine the entire third, against Vegas he sat the final 9:18 and in Montreal he sat the final 25:22 of the game.
Coach Alain Vigneault feels Vesey has had some quality games, like in the win in Tampa last week, but in others has had trouble both with and without the puck.
“He, I believe, can be better,” Vigneault said of the 24-year-old left wing. “He’s still a very young player, second year in the league. I believe there’s a lot of potential and upside there. I believe he’s got a great attitude and great work ethic. Sometimes in an 82-game season you go through little phases, and right now he’s trying to find his rhythm and trying to find his game.”
Buchnevich opened the scoring at 9:53 of the first, beating Zdeno Chara and roofing a shot at the near post for his seventh goal of the season and sixth in his last seven games. David Pastrnak scored just 21 seconds later to tie the game.
The Rangers killed off all for Bruins power plays, continuing their run of shorthanded success. Over their last five games the Rangers are 12-for-12 on the penalty kill, and they’ve killed off 25 of the last 27 power plays against, a 92.6 percent clip.
Maple Leafs 4, Wild 2
Toronto
Nazem Kadri, Patrick Marleau, Connor Carrick and Connor Brown scored for Toronto. Playing with star center Auston Matthews out day to day with an upper-body injury, Toronto improved to 10-7-0.
Jason Zucker scored twice for Minnesota, and Devan Dubnyk stopped 15 shots. The Wild have lost three in a row to fall to 5-7-2.
Toronto coach Mike Babcock shifted Marleau to the middle with Matthews out.
Matthews was scratched for the first time since being drafted in 2016, playing in 98 straight games including all 82 last year in his Calder Trophy winning campaign.