NEW YORK — A bit of fancy footwork did in the Bruins on Broadway.
Chris Kreider struck for a shorthanded goal at 8:06 of the third period to give the Rangers a come-from-behind 3-2 win Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.
Kreider kicked a feathery, cross-slot pass from Mika Zibanejad from his skate blade to his stick blade and then went top shelf to beat Joonas Korpisalo for the winner.
“Yeah, I mean, that was a nice pass.” said Korpisalo, who stopped 19 shots. “Went all the way across. I was a little bit late there and he roofed it. So, it’s a nice play, but ideally I wouldn’t need to stretch that much. But yeah, it’s a two-on-one, and it’s a good team.”
It was a particularly frustrating loss for the Bruins, who erased a 1-0 deficit and led, 2-1, entering the third period on the second night of back-to-back games.
Brad Marchand was penalized for roughing Igor Shesterkin after colliding with the Rangers goalie on a net drive at 3:25.
Just two seconds after the Bruins killed the penalty, Vincent Trocheck redirected a K’Andre Miller’s blue-line shot past Korpisalo for the equalizer.
As the MSG crowd voiced its approval, Marchand voiced his displeasure with the refs. He wasn’t upset about his penalty, however.
“I was just questioning him about when a guy pulls your helmet off, it’s an automatic penalty,” said Marchand, who lost his lid during the post-whistle scrum on Shesterkin’s doorstep. “So, I was just curious why they didn’t call it when it’s automatic.”
Marchand would have been fine with matching minors.
“Yeah, I mean obviously I hit the goalie. That’s a penalty. I wasn’t upset about that. I knew it was a penalty,” said the Bruins captain. “It was more, again, that’s an automatic call, so I don’t know why he wouldn’t call it.”
It was a turning point in the game, though the Bruins did have their chances but couldn’t punch another go ahead goal past Shesterkin, who needed to make only 15 saves to even his record at 18-18-2.
Boston earned a power play midway through the third when Matt Rempe took down Pavel Zacha in front of the Bruins bench.
Instead of capitalizing, the Bruins unraveled.
After a mini-Bruins flurry with the man advantage, Adam Fox collected a loose puck and shuttled it ahead to Zibanejad and he was off to the races. Kreider beat two defenders to make it a two-on-one, before popping in his 16th of the season, then popping into Zibanejad’s arms.
“We get to a point where we kill almost the whole [Marchand penalty] off,” said Bruins coach Joe Sacco. “I think he just steps on the ice there [when they score]. But again, it’s just 2-2 at that point, so we’re still fine and then gave up one at the end of our power play there. So disappointing. It’s a disappointing third period when you battle back and you get a 2-1 lead on the road and just like I said, frustrated.”
David Pastrnak, who stretched his scoring streak to 12 games, dismissed playing on back-to-back nights as an excuse for the third-period unraveling.
“I don’t think it’s fatigue, it’s our doing,” said Pastrnak. “We were undisciplined; we got scored against on [our] power play. Those are two things that bite you in this league. And we didn’t have our A game today whatsoever, but we were up, 2-1, after two periods somehow and thanks to Korpi and a couple goals, we’ve just got to be better with the discipline. And on the power play, obviously.”
Playing within earshot of the Amtrak, New Jersey Transit, and Long Island Railroad cars, the Bruins came out playing like a wobbly old Orange Line crate.
Looking as confused as an out-of-towner trying to figure out the massive train schedule boards at Penn Station, the Bruins landed but four shots on Shesterkin through 20 minutes.
The Rangers didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory, either, with most of their eight shots on Korpisalo coming during a late-period flurry.
Suffice it to say, nobody from Toronto was calling for a copy of the tape. They’d rather it be buried out in the weeds in Secaucus.
Artemi Panarin finally gave the Manhattanites something to cheer about when he rocketed one over Korpisalo’s blocker at 6:07.
J.T. Miller didn’t get a helper on the play, but his hard smash on Brandon Carlo forced a turnover that eventually found its way to Panarin, who connected for his team-leading 23rd.
The Bruins’ rejuvenated penalty-killers extinguished back-to-back penalties to Morgan Geekie (tripping) and Andrew Peeke (high-sticking).
The successful squashes seemed to spark the Bruins, who started playing more north-south and connected. Aside from a Rempe breakaway (Korpisalo snuffed his backhander with a stretchy right pad save), the Bruins controlled the rest of the period.
“Sopranos” star Steve Schirripa tried to bring the Garden crowd back to life with a couple of JumboTron fist pumps, but as quick as you could say “Bacala,” the Bruins silenced the place.
Pastrnak collected his own rebound of a blocked shot in front and wristed one past Shesterkin for his 28th of the season at 15:03. Charlie McAvoy picked up an assist for his 300th career point.
Just 16 sweet seconds later, Boston took its first lead when Elias Lindholm struck for his 10th of the season.
Lindholm’s wrister from the left circle hit a skate and soared over Shesterkin’s glove for a 2-1 lead that stood after 40 minutes.
The Bruins (27-23-6) will face the Golden Knights in Boston Saturday before the two-week break for the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Jim McBride can be reached at james.mcbride@globe.com. Follow him @globejimmcbride.