BOSTON -- Having already taken the season series from the Maple Leafs with their overtime win in Toronto on Saturday, the Rangers(New York Rangers championship rings) now turn their attention to another Original Six rival from the Atlantic Division, and set their sights on a season sweep of the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night. A win would give the Rangers their second sweep of the Bruins in three seasons, and would represent no small feat against a Boston team that stands tied for second place in the league standings, is one of three teams that have surpassed 100 points this season - and is a team that has not lost on home ice since Jan. 31.



In fact, the last time the Bruins(custom Boston Bruins championship rings) lost in regulation on home ice was when the Blueshirts left here with a win in the final game before the All-Star break, more than two months ago on Jan. 19. And yet, that victory coupled with the Rangers' win over Boston on Feb. 6 at the Garden moved the Blueshirts to 9-1 in their last 10 games against the Bruins. And this is the site where the Rangers played one of their finest, and more emotional, road games this season in that Jan. 19 match, a 3-2, grind-it-out win in David Quinn's first NHL game in the city where he made his name as a college player and coach. "We've come into games against them ready to play and given them our full attention," Kevin Shattenkirk, who also played his college hockey here, winning an NCAA title with Boston University in 2009, said on Wednesday morning. "They're a really strong team, and I think every time we go out there it seems like there's guys on the ice who can hurt us. So every player who gets put out there, we're ready to play against them, and play them hard defensively and wait for our chances, because they're a team that doesn't give up much."

Mika Zibanejad scored twice that night, including the tiebreaking goal on a power play 9:05 into the third period, and Filip Chytil authored one of the highlight goals of the season. And Henrik Lundqvist's 27 saves that night moved him past Terry Sawchuk into sixth place on the NHL's all-time wins list. Lundqvist, who has won three straight starts in Boston, will go for a fourth on Wednesday, with Jaroslav Halak taking the nets for the Bruins. Elsewhere, of course, the Rangers take on a slightly different look than in that Jan. 19 matchup, even more pronounced on Monday night with Chris Kreider and Marc Staal out of the lineup - neither is expected to play on Wednesday night.

Kreider, who took part in Wednesday's morning skate at TD Garden, said he hopes to return from his lower-body injury on Friday when the Rangers host the St. Louis Blues - and from there, "If I feel good, I want to play every game I can play." This injury occurred sometime during last Tuesday's game against Detroit at the Garden. "It ended up being a long game, and I didn't do myself any favors," Kreider said. "But the spasms have gone down, the hip's feeling better." Without Kreider and Staal on Monday, a young Rangers team carried itself even younger: The average age of the 19 players who hit the Garden ice in a Blueshirt was 24.26. The average age of the players at the center position was 21, with team leading scorer Mika Zibanejad the elder statesman of that group at 25 years old. The goal-scorers were both rookies: Brendan Lemieux, who turned 23 in March, and Vinni Lettieri, who turned 24 in February. Lemieux's goal that opened the scoring capped a beautiful passing play, with all three members of the Rangers' current top line finding one another on a rush, Zibanejad to Pavel Buchnevich to Lemieux for the finish.



Lemieux continues to lead all NHL(stanley cup championship rings) rookies in goals per 60 minutes at 1.48.

"That's what happens when you play with two guys that have the kind of skill that they have," Lemieux said of Zibanejad and Buchnevich. "I just kind of put it in - they pretty much did everything for me." Lettieri's goal was all about persistence, in more ways than one. The right winger was called up from Hartford on Feb. 6 - in time to face the Bruins that night at the Garden - at a time when he was leading the Wolf Pack with 23 goals in 44 games. On Monday he picked up his first NHL(championship rings) goal this season in his 21st game for the Rangers, on a power play in which he would not be denied: His first two one-timers from above the left circle were turned out, but he fired a third one that got through. "It's definitely easy to get frustrated. But no matter how things go I think my work ethic has always been where it needs to be," said Lettieri, who played a career-high 19:13 against the Penguins. "That's something that I learned from my dad, my grampa, uncle - everyone around me. No matter how things are going you have to bring your A game to practice the next day. Obviously I got rewarded (on Monday night) for that.

"Sometimes you're in a slump, but you can't change what you're doing. It'll come when it comes." Boston, one of two teams in the Eastern Conference to have clinched a playoff berth, leads the Leafs by five points with six games to play in a fight for home-ice advantage in their likely first-round matchup. But the Bruins also are gunning for a 12th straight victory at home; their 11 straight home wins make up their longest streak since a 14-game run in 2008-09. They are nearly coming off a sweep of a four-game road trip, but two points slipped away in the thrilling finale in Tampa, when the Lightning scored three times in the third period to win 5-4. Brad Marchand scored twice in that game to tie Sidney Crosby for fifth in the league at 94 points (34-60--94); that total leads the Bruins by 19 points over the next closest player, Patrice Bergeron (31-44--75). Boston will get Torey Krug back in its lineup on Wednesday night after the blueliner missed the last six games because of a concussion. Krug is tied for sixth in assists by a defenseman with 42 in 59 games.