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Zdeno Chara shows Howe to lead

David Krejci and Johnny Boychuk helped up Zdeno Chara after the biggest Bruin drilled home the winning goal in the third period.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff/Boston Globe

Brian Boyle is not small. The Hingham strongman checks in at 6 feet 7 inches and 244 pounds. It just so happened that in Friday’s second period, Boyle angered the one man who makes him look like a bantam.

There was a pileup in front of the Rangers net. Boyle did not like David Krejci barreling into the scrum. In turn, Zdeno Chara did not appreciate Boyle mixing it up with his smaller teammates.

Chara plucked Boyle away from Krejci with his left arm. The situation accelerated. Soon enough, four gloves dropped to the ice and right hands started to fly.

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“It’s part of the game,” Chara said. “Sometimes those scrums involve a lot of heated moments and emotions. You have to protect your best players. The situation just happened. Brian is a really strong, tough customer. It’s something we both kind of reacted on.”

Chara got the best of Boyle. Chara started the fight with a strong right. Chara collared Boyle with his left hand to keep his opponent away. Chara then concluded the scrap with several more rights before both fighters fell to the ice.

Bruins captain Zdeno Chara left his fingerprints all over Friday’s matinee victory — including a second-period fight with the Rangers’ Brian Boyle, even though Chara was already sporting a shiner.John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

In all, 499 pounds of beef had come together in the fight.

“I would duck, for sure,” Patrice Bergeron said of having to throw down with Chara. “I’m obviously pretty happy he’s on my side. Every game, he goes to war. He’s our leader. You feed off a guy like him.”

Chara’s fight was the second leg en route to a Gordie Howe hat trick. In the first period, Chara snapped a seam pass down to Brad Marchand at the right circle. Because of the sharp angle Chara’s pass traveled, Henrik Lundqvist had to go a long way from right to left to get in front of Marchand. Too far. Before Lundqvist could move over, Marchand had put the puck into the net at 11:42 to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead.

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Chara capped the trick with his stick. Krejci had started the play by sealing off an outlet along the right-side boards. Chara saw the Rangers were backtracking. Chara supported the attack, received Krejci’s pass, and sent a slap shot on goal that Lundqvist misread. The winning goal was Chara’s sixth strike of the year.

“I saw the opening,” Chara said. “David recognized the situation. I put the puck on net as quick and as hard as I could. Good job by everybody.”

Chara played a season-low 19:50. He delivered serious bang for the buck.

The Bruins needed every segment of Chara’s assist-fight-goal trick to score an important win. They were coming off Wednesday’s 6-1 hammering in Detroit. Also, in their last meeting against the Rangers, the Bruins recorded two points when they deserved none. Only Tuukka Rask’s 43-save sparkler allowed the Bruins to snatch a 2-1 result.

Chara was one of 19 Bruins who played poorly against the Wings. Chara was on the ice for three of Detroit’s six goals, including two at even strength.

“We all felt really bad about the game,” Chara said. “It was just one of those nights where we just didn’t execute anything. Nothing was really happening for us. Detroit played really well. They deserved to win that game. Those kinds of games do happen. It’s just the way you have to bounce back and regroup from nights like that. Today, we did a pretty good job.”

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Rask has been the Bruins’ best player. Without Rask, the Bruins wouldn’t be atop the Eastern Conference.

Chara has been the team’s most important skater. For the most part, Chara has changed the game in just about every situation.

Chara’s goal against the Rangers was the first he scored via slap shot from the point.

“For some reason, I was reading a high shot and then just made a bad move,” Lundqvist said. “Instead of playing it the way I should, I read his stick and I thought it was going high. I don’t know if he fell down or kind of missed it, but it definitely fooled me a little bit. Tough one.”

Two games ago, Chara scored with a wrister against Pittsburgh. Chara’s other four goals have come down low on the power play. Chara is proving he can score from everywhere using different approaches.

Chara’s most dangerous weapons on Friday were his fists. It was Chara’s first fight of the season. Chara is cautious about picking his spots. He knows he’s more valuable on the ice than in the box.

But Chara understood the situation. The Bruins were trailing, 2-1. They were coming off an embarrassment in Detroit. A very big man was lurking around his No. 1 center. So Chara said goodbye to his gloves.

“He’s our leader, like we always say,” Dennis Seidenberg said. “He’s a guy that brings the emotion, if it’s lacking, to a game. He had a great pass on the first goal, a great fight, and the last goal. So he kind of basically won the game for us. That’s what you want out of a leader. He just makes everything look so easy because he’s just so dominant. It’s nice to have.”

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Fluto Shinzawa can be reached at fluto.shinzawa@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeFluto.