Bruins Lose Lead In Third And Fall To Rangers In Shootout After A Thrilling 5 Minutes Of Overtime, Heinen Gets Shuffled To Top Line And Scores

After trailing 3-1 against the Bruins heading into the third period last night, the New York Rangers scored twice against Jaroslav Halak to force overtime, eventually scoring twice in a seven-round shootout to take the 4-3 win.

New York improved to 23-22-8 which is currently seventh out of eight Metropolitan teams; Boston's record after the one-point effort stood at 29-17-8, third in the Atlantic Division.

The five minutes of overtime featured epic stretches of high-energy play with spectacular saves being made from Halak and Alexandar Georgiev, including this one from Halak with 1:06 to go against Mika Zibanejad, who scored his 22nd goal of the season earlier in the first period:

HALAK WITH THE SAVE OF THE GAME IN OVERTIME! #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/XlrMyK09Ei

— Casey Baker (@CaseyBake16) February 7, 2019

Zibanejad scored New York's first goal in the shootout in the third round, before Brad Marchand kept the Bruins alive one attempt later; defenseman Tony DeAngelo scored in the seventh round for the win as David Krejci failed to answer.

All three of Boston's goals came in the second period, as Danton Heinen (7th), David Pastrnak (31st), and Patrice Bergeron (19th, PPG) found the back of the net.

Heinen played alongside Bergeron and Marchand following a shuffle by coach Bruce Cassidy after the first period; he remained on the top line for the rest of the game as Pastrnak played with Krejci and Peter Cehlarik. Heinen was positioned perfectly on this screen for Matt Grzelcyk's shot, making contact and getting credit for the goal:

New first-line wing Danton Heinen tips home Grzelcyk's shot. pic.twitter.com/LLt677xMdd

— Conor Ryan (@ConorRyan_93) February 7, 2019

Last night should be a good confidence booster for Heinen. After a real impressive rookie campaign last year in which he had 16 goals and 47 points in 77 games, he hasn't had the same type of production this season, currently with 14 points in 50 games (just one multi-point game). But the talent is there, and Cassidy has faith in Heinen's abilities and skillset which is why he put him on the top line.

The Bruins' next game is Saturday afternoon at home against the LA Kings...

​Beat LA.