Rangers lose to Bruins in possible playoff preview

BOSTON – If the Rangers end up finishing first in the Metropolitan Division and the Boston Bruins finish fourth in the Atlantic, then Saturday’s matinee between the teams at TD Garden may have served as a preview of a first-round playoff matchup.

If so, then the Bruins may have earned a psychological advantage going into Game 1 on the basis of their 3-1 victory. At the same time, though, Boston’s victory could end up being the thing that prevents the teams from facing each other when the playoffs start next week. The loss, which ended a four-game Rangers win streak, knocked the Blueshirts out of a first-place tie with the Carolina Hurricanes.

Carolina, which earlier in the day rallied from a two-goal deficit late in the third period to beat the Devils in overtime, 3-2, lead the Rangers by two points in the race to finish first. The Hurricanes have 110 points to the Rangers’ 108.

Rangers coach Gerard Gallant admitted he and his coaching staff did watch the Carolina game before their own game started, but he wasn’t sweating the result.

“We watched it because you always watch a game,’’ he said. “And it was 2-0, and then it was, all of a sudden, 3-2. But again, like I’ve talked to you before, I mean, we want to finish first; we want to win every game we play. But at the end of the day, when the season's over, we're first or second and got home ice (for the first round). It is what it is, but we want to try and win as many games as we can.’’

If they don’t end up winning the division, the Rangers have at least already clinched second place, which guarantees them home ice advantage in the first round. If they finish second, they’ll play the third place finisher in the division, which will be either Pittsburgh or Washington.

The Rangers’ last four opponents, Philadelphia, Detroit, Winnipeg and the Islanders, are all non-playoff teams, so the Bruins (48-25-5, 101 points) represented a step up in competition.

“Obviously they’re preparing for the playoffs, just like we are,’’ forward Barclay Goodrow said. “So it was good to play one of those teams and have a close-fought game. I think we did a lot of good things. There were some things that we could have done better and little mistakes that cost us, so overall it wasn’t bad. And now we’re on to Carolina at home.’’

They face the Hurricanes Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.

On Saturday, they played without forwards Andrew Copp and Filip Chytil, who both left Thursday’s win over the Islanders with injuries. Both players are listed as day-to-day. Boston, on the other hand, welcomed back sniper David Pastrnak, who missed eight games with an upper-body injury, as well as defenseman Hampus Lindholm, who missed seven games with a lower-body injury, and goalie Linus Ullmark, who missed three games after taking a shot to the mask in a game against Ottawa on April 14.

Pastrnak scored the Bruins’ first goal, banging in a pass from defenseman Charlie McAvoy, the Long Beach native, with 34.1 seconds remaining in the first period. He also had an assist on Taylor Hall’s goal that made it 2-0 at 1:07 of the second period, when he broke up a pass from Adam Fox that was intended for Artemi Panarin, and passed it to Erik Haula, who sprang Hall for a breakaway.

Ullmark made 30 saves, many of them exceptional, including sparkling glove grabs of shots by Mika Zibanejad and Frank Vatrano midway through the second period.

Zibanejad’s power-play goal at 2:58 of the third period got the Rangers on the board and within 2-1, and they had a golden chance to tie it, as the Bruins’ Brandon Carlo was called for hooking Alexis Lafreniere during the power play, and that put the Rangers right back on the power play.

But the second power play produced nothing, and Trent Frederic’s goal at 9:37 made it 3-1 for the Bruins.

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.