For the 2010 to 2011 season, justSports has been given a press pass to attend Boston Bruins home games. We will cover these games periodically throughout the year. New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist tends to play well against the Boston Bruins. Coming into last Saturday's game in Boston, the Rangers were 13-4-2 when Lundqvist started in net in head-to-head match-ups between two of the six original NHL teams. This game was no different.

The Rangers defeated Boston 3-2 behind Ludqvist's 35 saves and handed the Bruins their second loss of the season, snapping Boston's four-game winning streak after the Bruins defeated the Washington Capitals 4-1 in their home opener last Thursday. The Bruins remain at 8 points for the season, while the Rangers defeated the New Jersey Devils 3-1 Sunday night and improved to 9 points. This was the 15th one-goal game between the Rangers and Bruins in their last 21 match-ups.

"I think as a team, when you have to step up to a challenge, you feel very solid," Lundqvist said. "Boston is a team that's not all over the place, and usually our games are pretty tight, so it's more controlled and it leads to low-scoring games."

New York got out to a fast start, scoring two goals in a span of 27 seconds just 7 minutes into the first period. Center Artem Anisimov started the scoring with a powerplay goal at 12 minutes, 28 seconds. Anisimov whacked the puck out of midair on his backhand into the net after an initial shot had been saved by Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask. The second goal came at 12:01 from forward Alexander Frolov, who luckily was the last Rangers player to touch a puck that ricocheted off of Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg and floated over Rask's head.

Bruins head coach Claude Julien said the Rangers' goals were the result of his team's mistakes early in the game.

"They had a couple of lucky goals, but I feel like those goals would not have happened if we didn't have such a slow start," Julien said.

The Bruins responded, though, scoring on defenseman Zdeno Chara's slap shot from the left circle on a two-man advantage with just 4.3 seconds remaining in the period. The goal was Chara's second of the season.

Despite the late Bruins goal, it was the Rangers who came out strong in the second period as defenseman Marc Staal scored on a breakaway less than a minute into the period to give the Rangers a 3-1 lead. Staal raced out of the penalty box and skated away with a puck that forward Ryan Callahan had broken up on the Rangers' blue line. Staal converted by deking to his backhand to beat Rask for his first goal of the season.

"It felt nice," Staal told Madison Square Garden Network of his goal. "I've used that move a couple of times on breakaways [in junior hockey], but I think this was my first breakaway in the NHL. . Old trusty backhand and it worked."

The Bruins would again cut the lead to one later in the period, when forward Nathan Horton collected a pass from David Krecij and fired a shot past Lundqvist at the 12:27 mark. Horton extended his consecutive points streak to six games after also scoring in the home opener last Thursday.

Both teams were held scoreless in the third period, largely due to several game-saving plays by Lundqvist. The Bruins' best opportunity came on an odd-man rush at the 6:21 mark. Forward Blake Wheeler got past the Rangers' defense and was chased into the corner of the offensive zone with the puck. Wheeler sent a cross-ice pass to the opposite side where forward Jordan Caron tried to one-time the puck home to tie the game. However, Lundqvist was able to recover and plant his right foot into the right post to make the pad save and secure the win.

The Bruins did not disappoint in their home opener against Washington last Thursday, however, defeating the Capitals 4-1 for the second time in as many games in front of a sellout crowd of over 17,000 people. The win came after the Bruins beat the Caps in Washington last Tuesday by a score of 3-1.

The Bruins scored first, getting on the board late in the first period on a power-play goal from forward Michael Ryder at 19:27. Patrice Bergeron received a pass from center Tyler Seguin at the top of the zone between the points. He faked a shot and instead sent a sharp pass to the right of Capitals' goalie Semyon Varlomov where Ryder one-timed the puck home for the first goal of the game.

The goal capped off a period that saw teams have chances to pull ahead early. Washington outshot Boston 13-8 and had two odd-man rushes with forwards Marcus Johansson and Brooks Laich. However, Bruins' goalie Tim Thomas saved both chances to hold Washington scoreless.

The Bruins picked up where they left off to start the second period. Boston controlled the puck for almost all of the first 2 1/2 minutes of the period, out-shooting Washington 6-0 in that span. The Bruins finally converted on a sharp wrister by Caron that beat Varlomov at 2:20 to give Boston the 2-0 lead.

The Bruins increased their lead midway through the period after Caps forward Alexander Semin was called for a hooking penalty at 10:29. The Bruins had an early chance just a few seconds into the power play when Horton had a breakaway against Varlomov in which he deked to his backhand but was stopped by the goalie's splitting right pad. Horton would get another chance on the same power play as he converted the Bruins' third goal with just 14 seconds left on the man-advantage. Horton fired a slap shot from the blue line that trickled past a screened Varlomov at 12:16.

"There was so much traffic in front of the net," Horton said. "We had all our guys in front, and I don't think [Varlomov] saw [the puck]. It was just luck that it went in."

Washington finally got on the board in the third period when Thomas turned the puck over on a failed clearing attempt. Washington forward Jason Chimera intercepted the puck and scored on the unguarded net at 9:27.

Boston, though, would respond with its third power-play goal of the game as Chara scored his first goal of the season with just 16 seconds left in the game.

Thomas was again strong in net for Boston, coming up with big saves at crucial moments of the game. In the second period after the Bruins' early offense surge, he stopped 13 shots including multiple chances that came from point blank range in front of the net, and others that required Thomas to fully extend his pads to cover an empty side of the goal.

After Rask started the team's season-opening loss in Prague, Czech Republic against Phoenix Oct. 9, Thomas, who had off-season hip surgery, has started every game since, until the Ranger game, and is yet to lose this season. In the home opener, he saved 38 of 39 Washington shots on goal to lead the team to its fourth straight victory.

"I felt really good [tonight]," Thomas said. "I couldn't be happier with the way I'm feeling. I just have to keep working hard and keep doing it practice."

The Bruins next host the Toronto Maple Leafs Thursday at 7 p.m.