One goal is enough as NY beats Bruins

NEW YORK (AP) - Henrik Lundqvist stopped 29 shots for his 150th NHL victory and 21st career shutout, and Marian Gaborik returned from injury and scored for the fourth straight game as the New York Rangers beat the Boston Bruins 1-0 on Sunday.

With most New York sports fans focused on a pair of NFL games involving local teams and the Yankees' World Series run, the Rangers returned home from a disappointing road trip in which they went 0-2 without Gaborik and beat the stingy Bruins.

Boston continued its season-long trend of alternating wins and losses, absorbing a tough-luck defeat one day after backup goalie Tuukka Rask shut out Edmonton at home.

Tim Thomas made 22 saves in his return to the nets. His only blemish was Gaborik's second-period goal that broke up the scoreless duel with Lundqvist.

The Rangers were outscored 6-3 in road losses to the New York Islanders and Minnesota Wild this week. Now they will try to make some noise during a three-game trip to Western Canada that begins Tuesday at Vancouver.

New York (9-5-1) ended a 1-4-1 skid that came on the heels of a seven-game winning streak, largely on the strength of their penalty-killing that was perfect in five chances.

Lundqvist was at his best early in the third period when the Bruins had four straight minutes of power-play time. He denied Mark Recchi in front on a quick backhander 6:21 into the period.

That stop and Gaborik's goal were enough to give him his first shutout of the season.

Gaborik, who had been out with an injury to his right leg, finally found a soft spot in the Boston defense that was looking for its first winning streak of the season.

Late in the second, Vinny Prospal raced the puck up left into the Bruins zone and dropped the puck back to Gaborik in the high slot for a hard one-timer that beat Thomas over his glove with 4:09 left.

The Rangers lost both games that Gaborik was out of the lineup because of an injury to his right leg. He is clearly the key cog in their attack that produced three goals while he was sidelined. Gaborik has 11 goals this season and has five in his last four games.

Thomas was sharp after taking Saturday's game off. He made a fine pad stop on Brandon Dubinsky's one-timer in the first period while New York was short-handed, and then kicked his foot out later in the frame to deny Ales Kotalik's drive during a Rangers power play.

NOTES:
Lundqvist's previous shutout was a 3-0 win over New Jersey on March 30.

Rangers enforcer Donald Brashear sat out because of a lingering arm injury. LW Sean Avery and LW Christopher Higgins returned to the lineup, however, after sitting out Friday at Minnesota.

Boston will play an NHL-high 19 afternoon games this season.

The Bruins have killed 14 straight penalties.