Rangers blanked by Bruins in fight night at Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden was the host for a throwback Friday Night at the Fights hockey game between the Rangers and Boston Bruins.

In a game that featured quite a number of hard hits and a couple of old-fashioned hockey fights, the Bruins outlasted the Rangers, 1-0, and improved to 10-1-2 while handing the Rangers (4-6-3) their third straight loss.

The frustration for the Rangers, who played without leading scorer Artemi Panarin, was clear after the game. They can feel good about their effort in hanging tough with the Bruins in two games this week — they lost, 3-2, in overtime on Wednesday — but they can’t take solace from moral victories.

"I don’t think so anymore,’’ said defenseman Jacob Trouba, who had a couple of roughing penalties in the second period. "It’s not good enough to lose games by a goal. It’s the NHL, and you’ve got to win games [and] find a way to get points. And especially in the shortened season, we’ve got to find a way to win hockey games. That’s the bottom line.’’

Nick Ritchie’s second-period goal held up as Boston goaltender Jaroslav Halak — a former Islander — made 21 saves to earn the shutout. Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin stopped 29 of 30 shots.

With Panarin (five goals, 10 assists) out of the lineup with a lower-body injury (he’s officially listed as day-to-day), the Rangers were shut out for the second time this week. They lost to the Islanders, 2-0, on Monday.

With Sunday’s game against Philadelphia postponed because the Flyers have seven players out with COVID, Panarin and the Rangers’ offense will have a couple of days to get healthy.

Coach David Quinn thinks the biggest issue to work on with their extra practice time is the power play, which has scored twice in its last 31 opportunities.

"I thought our power play kind of deflated us a little bit,’’ he said. "I thought that we really struggled on it. Obviously, you’re not going to score every power play, but you’re looking for some momentum. And ours kind of sucked the life out of us a little bit.’’

With Panarin out, No. 1 pick Alexis Lafreniere stepped into his spot on the second line with center Ryan Strome and right wing Kaapo Kakko. Colin Blackwell, who missed four games with an upper-body injury, re-entered the lineup and took Kakko’s spot on the third line with Brett Howden and Phillip DiGiuseppe.

After a scoreless first period, the Bruins drew first blood — on the scoreboard — when Ritchie whacked in his own rebound for his fifth goal of the season at 9:27. Shesterkin hugged the post and made the save on Ritchie’s first shot, but Ritchie swooped around behind the net, collected the rebound and banked it in off Shesterkin’s back to make it 1-0.

The game got chippy in the second period as the Bruins wrested control of the game. It started when Trouba hit Jakub Zboril and the Bruins’ Charlie McAvoy took exception. McAvoy, a Long Beach native, challenged Trouba, who was going to be sent off for a roughing penalty against Zboril. Trouba and McAvoy exchanged punches, with Trouba getting the better of McAvoy. The officials assessed both players roughing minors rather than fighting majors.

On the faceoff after Ritchie’s goal, Brendan Lemieux and Trent Frederic fought, exchanging some haymakers. Later, Pavel Buchnevich, not noted as a fighter, dropped the gloves with Boston’s Jeremy Lauzon, who got a 10-minute misconduct in addition to his fighting major.

The teams totaled 46 minutes in penalties in the second period, including two fights and three roughing calls.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.