By now, you know the story between Henrik Lundqvist and the Boston Bruins.

No matter the skill-set of the Rangers squad in front of the 31-year-old netminder, or even the skill of the Boston roster Lundqvist goes up against, the Swedish goaltender has absolutely owned the Black-and-Gold, and with a second round date with the Bruins and Rangers beginning last night in Boston, it was natural to expect more of the same from No. 30 in red, white, and blue. And through a period of play, Lundqvist had stopped all 11 shots thrown his way, and was rocking a 140-minute shutout streak. Business as usual.

With Hank in the zone, the only thing the New York Rangers really needed was something out of their road-scared offense. But when the 26-year-old Tuukka Rask held the fort on home-ice, it'd be the Bruins that'd strike first when a Zdeno Chara bomb beat Lundqvist, who oddly enough put the puck in the back of his own net on the play, giving the Bruins a 1-0 midway through the first.

Putting an end to Lundqvist's shutout streak after nearly 153 minutes, the Rangers rebounded around Lundqvist's play, and tied the Game 1 showdown with just 1.3 seconds left in the second period thanks to Ryan McDonagh's first goal of the postseason.

Squaring the teams up to a 1-1 draw after 40 minutes of play, the Blueshirts opened the third only to waste no time in jumping out to a 2-1 edge just 14 seconds into the period when Derek Stepan struck on a great pass from winger Carl Hagelin before a back-peddling Boston squad could even gather their thoughts.

"It was disappointing to say the least. We gave them that goal with just little over a second left. Right off the draw, when we lost it, we didn’t’ react well. I dealt with that in the room. The biggest thing was we couldn’t dwell on that goal. We had to go out there and take the play back to them as we had before that goal, but then we gave them that goal right off the first shift," B's coach Claude Julien said of the Bruins' 16-second collapse that spanned through two periods. "Again, we’ve been through that. We went through it with Toronto. Guys didn’t hang their heads; they just said lets go get the next one."

Going back to the power-play with a holding call against the Rangers' Steve Eminger, the focus put on the Bruins' rookie blue-liners came through in an unexpectedly positive light when Dougie Hamilton zipped the puck on over to Torey Krug, who fired home his first career postseason goal, beating Lundqvist to bring this one back to a tie at 2-2.

"I’m very comfortable with the group of guys in here. I’m comfortable in a sense that they were giving me the puck all night and they weren’t nervous in [giving me a larger role], so it was very exciting to get out there," the 22-year-old Krug said after the game. "I think the key to every power play is to get pucks to the net, and that’s one of the strengths of my game, so I was just working as hard as I can to open up that shot lane and it really wasn’t that hard to. I had a lot of time and space, and Dougie [Hamilton] made a great play."

Your first career NHL goal coming in Game 1 in the second round of the playoffs on a power-play with your team down by one against Henrik Lundqvist? No big deal, right?

"For his first goal he couldn’t have asked for better timing. Again, it just shows how good a player he is. Those young guys back there don’t lack confidence. That’s been really important for us," Julien said of Krug's contributions. "He certainly did a great job of coming into this situation and just going out there and playing the way he normally does. We asked him to do that and that’s exactly what he did."

Throwing the pressure on Lundqvist and the Rangers' defense to shut them down, the Bruins were put on a situation to throw the dagger in the Blueshirts' Game 1 hopes when John Moore was whistled for interference, putting an end to a golden chance New York had on their own power-play. Putting a fearsome five unit out there anchored by Zdeno Chara and Tyler Seguin on the points with Milan Lucic, Patrice Bergeron, and former Rangers captain Jaromir Jagr up front, the Bruins' cycling got the job done, but simply couldn't solve the shot-blocking mammoth known as the Rangers' penalty-killing unit, headlined by a huge block from Dan Girardi on a Seguin one-timer with just 22 seconds left in the game.

Stymied by a last-second post-shot from Johnny Boychuk, the Rangers -- led by a 30-save performance by Lundqvist, were forcing an overtime in the Hub.

Riding their goaltender into an extra frame for the third time this season, the assault on Lundqvist from the Black-and-Gold would continue just 2:20 into the overtime frame when Jacket-turned-Ranger Derek Dorsett was sentenced to the sin-bin for a two-minute interference penalty. And once more, the Bruins' tremendous man-advantage cycling came out, peppering the fatigued Lundqvist for six shots, but no goals, on a power-play spent almost entirely in the New York zone. Surviving the kill by the skin of their teeth, it was an attack from the B's that the Rangers' winded core couldn't recover from.

"Yeah, it was a surge. We couldn’t stop it," a frustrated John Tortorella told reporters after the game. "I thought [the scoring chances] were pretty even going into the overtime. But we got spanked in the overtime."

Somehow stonewalling the B's attack on the first 15 shots thrown his way in the overtime, on the 16th shot, a play that began with a Derick Brassard turnover, the Bruins struck off a great pass from Bergeron put into the back of the cage by the Bruins' snake-bitten agitator, Brad Marchand.

Sealing the deal on a B's victory in Game 1, and giving No. 63 his first goal of the postseason, a frustrated Lundqvist exited the rink the only way he could, flinging the game-winning goal puck into the boards and skating off, knowing that his club left him on an island all game long.

Marchand makes first mark on postseason in big way

Through seven games of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs, B's agitator Brad Marchand had been as quiet as he's ever been. Entering play with just three assists and zero goals on 17 shots, the 5-foot-9 sparkplug came out of his shell in the win, tallying an assist on the game-tying goal before driving to the net in overtime to tap home the game-winner. For Marchand, who began the 2013 playoffs with 12 goals and 21 points in 32 postseason games, it was a return to normalcy, as 'big moments' and 'Marchand' have gone hand in hand since his arrival to the Bruins' scene three years ago.

But in the second game of a newly formed second line featuring Patrice Bergeron and the 41-year-old Jaromir Jagr opposite Marchand, it was the speed and patience that the trio displayed that set the tone for a plethora of chances on the night.

"Brad was the reason [the second line] seemed to have more jump. I thought that was one of his better games," Julien said when asked about the Bergeron line's play on the night. "We put them together; we weren’t quite sure how it would turn out, but the first game, which was Game Seven, as the game went on, they got a little bit better, but I thought tonight, again, they took another step in the right direction.

"They did a great job of cycling the puck down low in the offensive zone, and hanging on to it," Julien noted, adding, "That was a good line for us, and we’re going to need that because we don’t want to just rely on the [David] Krejci line to produce, but we want a little bit more out of our other lines."

As Marchand said after the club's first round victory over the Maple Leafs, his game is at its best when he's able to hold onto the puck and create chances with patience, something he undoubtedly was able to do against the Rangers' defense in Game 1.

"Obviously, the Toronto series wasn’t my best series, but I felt good tonight and just want to keep building on it," Marchand admitted following his first two-point night since Apr. 8.

But with the referees staying on top of these clubs -- and already threatening 10-minute misconducts for unruly post-whistle festivities -- Marchand knows that his 'antics' aren't going to be a major difference-maker in this series as much as hard work.

"I think with how we play, we’re not overly physical teams. We’re just strong on the puck, we work hard, have good forechecks, and both play a similar style. It’s just a tough kind of game to play against," the 25-year-old said of the club's styles. "There’s not a whole lot of huge body checks or anything like that. Guys battle hard, they compete hard. If you’re going to score goals, you got to work hard."

Reverting back to a hard-nosed style of play that won him over as a crowd favorite back in 2011, the two-point night for No. 63 comes on the heels of a message from an old linemate and former mentor, Mark Recchi. "He just texted me and told me to play my game and not to worry about anything else. The goals and stuff will come," Marchand said of the communication between he and Recchi. "It’s nice to hear from him. He’s obviously a guy that I went through a lot when I played with him, and it was good to hear from him again."

Sometimes, as we've learned from watching Marchand, all it takes is a bit of a push.

Young defensemen don't disappoint with spotlight on

No Dennis Seidenberg, Andrew Ference, and Wade Redden for the Black-and-Gold? No problem. Not yet, anyways. Beginning the second round down to the ninth defensemen on their organizational depth chart, the panic in Boston regarding the Bruins' inexperienced trio of blue-liners in the lineup seemed a bit hyperbolic following Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Forced to dress Dougie Hamilton, Matt Bartkowski, and Torey Krug -- players with a combined 70 games of NHL experience -- the boost in minutes for the three young guys who combined are still younger than Jagr (don't quote me on that) came with tremendous results.

Despite the minus-2, Bartkowski played an absurdly solid game, making smart plays in all three zones, and getting pucks to the net whenever it was on his blade. The 19-year-old Hamilton responded to a shaky Game 7 with his first career playoff point, and was able to avoid costly pinches. And Torey Krug, the talk of Boston with his power-play goal late in the game, showed the confidence and poise you've heard so much about throughout his wildly successful 2012-13 campaign with the Providence Bruins this year.

"I thought they played really well. They deserve a lot of credit for the way they handled themselves, all three of them. It was Torey’s [Krug] first game, obviously. Not only did he score a big goal, but he just moved that puck so well. A lot of times, he played against their third line which is a pretty heavy line," Julien said. "I thought he handled them extremely well. Bart [Matt Bartkowski] continues to get better and better. He certainly takes the ice that’s given to him, he moves the puck up quickly. Those kinds of things have been really good. We’ve seen Dougie [Hamilton] with us all year.

"I thought they did a great job, but also our veterans that were back there with them. We saw Johnny Boychuk, the beating he took tonight and the amount of time that [Zdeno Chara] played. I thought we had a real good effort, obviously from those young guys, but our D corps was good tonight. I thought our whole team was, for that matter."

Lundqvist harsh on himself in loss

Henrik Lundqvist was a man on a warpath last night. His game had some blemishes, sure, namely coming with a goal that went off himself and in the second period, but other than that, it was another night and another strong showing for the Swede. But when 'the King' couldn't keep shot No. 48 out of the back of the net, his frustration was obvious, and translated into his postgame meeting with the media.

“I thought I made a bad decision. I mean, it’s a tough play, but I could play it better,” Lundqvist, who saw his shutout streak snap after 152:23 minutes in the loss, said. “That was a tough overtime for us. We didn’t really get going, and they came out with a lot of energy and created a lot of chances.

“I’ve got to see the guy in the middle. I was too focused on the puck. I kind of knew he [Brad Marchand] was coming in the middle, but I just was too locked in on the puck, and that’s why I made a stretch move instead of coming with my pads together,” Lundqvist told reporters after the loss that dropped his playoff record to a mild 4-4 through a round-plus, refusing to shift blame onto anybody else. “It’s a technical thing and it happened fast. Sooner or later when you face a lot of chances like that, you’re going to make a mistake.”

But as overtime losses continue to mount for New York, it appears as if the Are-born netminder has had enough of leaving the ice as a loser, even if his play (45 saves, the most in a playoff game since his triple-overtime win over Washington in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals last year) isn't necessarily to blame.

“Have I played bad in overtime? No. Can I score? No. Is it frustrating? Yes,” Lundqvist said of a cumulative effect these losses could have on himself, as the loss worsened his playoff overtime record to 0-3, and just 3-11 in his NHL career. “My record is terrible in overtime, but I’ve just got to stick with it, play my game, and hopefully it’ll turn around.”

As for Sunday’s Game 2, Rangers’ coach John Tortorella isn’t worrying about Lundqvist’s frustration with himself as the Blueshirts look for a tied series heading back to New York.

“He’s a competitor,” the New York bench boss said without a bit of hesitation.

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