When the National Hockey League lockout ended on Sunday, Jan. 6, many Boston Bruins fans exulted.

Following Saturday's 3-1 win over the rival New York Rangers, they were likely over the moon.

Left wings Milan Lucic and Daniel Paille and defenseman Johnny Boychuk scored in the first, second and third periods, respectively, as Boston ran out to a comfortable win against a team it had lost to three out of four times last year.

"We knew that [New York goalkeeper] Henrik Lundqvist is a great goalie," said center Patrice Bergeron, who assisted on Boychuk's goal. "So, we knew that we had to distract him in order to get the puck by him. I think we did that pretty well."

"I liked our effort tonight," said head coach Claude Julien. "Again, I  couldn't be happier because I like the effort that we gave tonight. The guys seemed to be pretty focused; I thought we had some real good plays and good decisions."

Given that these fans had waited three-and-a-half months more than expected for hockey, the crowd was fired up. The men on the ice were raring to go, too, apparent after such a volatile start. Bergeron fired the first warning shot just a minute, 40 seconds into the game, but the effort was comfortably saved by Lundqvist.

With five minutes, 46 seconds to go in the first, the deadlock was broken. Krejci fired an angled drive from the right side near the blue line, which Lundqvist could not hold. The Bs made the rebound count, though, as Lucic buried the second attempt, sending the TD Garden into raptures.

After the Rangers had a few opportunities in the initial stages, Lucic fired a warning shot that Lundqvist easily pushed aside. Paille then had an effort from close range that the goalie did well to smother. 

Before long, after a shot from the blue line, Paille increased the lead to 2-0. With 11:20 left in the second, the home team was two goals to the finish line. 

However, any complacency starting to creep into the Bruins' minds was quickly unsettled with seven minutes, 10 seconds left in the period. Center Brad Richards fired a quality shot that caromed off of the top corner of Tuukka Rask's net.

While the fans were enthralled by the back-and-forth nature of the contest, they became even more excited, as they were treated to two brawls in quick succession. The Bruins' first five-minute fighting penalty of the season went to left wing Shawn Thornton, who engaged in a brawl with New York center Mike Rupp. After just 10 seconds, play stopped again when defenseman Gregory Campbell began to fight Rangers defenseman Stu Bickel.

Just four minutes into the third period, the Rangers-who boasted a two-man advantage at the time-had a glorious opportunity to tie it up. Left wing Rick Nash, who had been relatively quiet up to that point, found himself mano-a-mano with Rask. However, the custodian denied the New York attacker the opportunity to keep the advantage. Richards went close twice in quick succession; however, Rask stood tall and the Bruins killed the power play.

Krejci then appeared to have doubled the Bs' advantage, as he poked a cross from defenseman Zdeno Ch??ra towards the net with Lundqvist sprawled on the ice. Yet it was not to be, as Lundqvist showed his quality in making a world-class save. 

The crowd didn't have to wait long, though, for the next goal. Boychuk fired in a long-range effort with 11:47 left in the game to give the home team a two-goal advantage.

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With five minutes, 34 seconds left, the two sets of players began to get at each other's throats. Though Lucic was sent to the box for a 10-minute misconduct penalty with four minutes left, the penalty didn't have any consequential impact, as the Bruins finished 3-1 winners in a game which they controlled start to finish.