Bruins beat Rangers, clinch Northeast Division

Boston Bruins' Tyler Seguin (19) and Patrice Bergeron, right, celebrate Bergeron's goal against New York Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, left, during the second period of an NHL hockey game Sunday, April 1, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Kmonicek)

After being outplayed in the first period, the Bruins found a way back into the game in the second period and fought their way to a 2-1 win over the conference leading New York Rangers. This was a good solid team win. The Bruins have clinched the Northeast Division.

Quick game summary
In the first period, it was all Rangers as they controlled the play for just about the whole period. Marian Gaborik scored for the Rangers making it 1-0 after a Zdeno Chara shot hit Jordan Caron and then went back out the other way by Chara and Seidenberg and Gaborik slew right by them for the breakaway, as he beat Tim Thomas going five-hole.

In the second period, Dennis Seidenberg scored his 5th goal of the season, with a big hard slap shot that beat Henrik Lundqvist. Later, Patrice Bergeron scored his 22nd goal of the season, a power-play goal, making it 2-1.

In the third period, no scoring happened.

Tim Thomas made 33 saves on 34 shots and is now 34-19-1 with a 2.35 GAA and a .921 save percentage so far this season.

Game notes
Gregory Campbell was out for the Bruins with a lower body injury so Daniel Paille replaced him in the lineup.

Dennis Seidenberg returned to the lineup and Mike Mottau was in for Adam McQuaid and Joe Corvo was scratched.

The Bruins led the game in faceoffs 32-16. The Rangers led the game in shots 34-21, hits 31-22 and blocked shots 18-9.

The Bruins went 1-for-2 on the power-play while the Rangers went 0-for-2, which included a 5-on-3.

Patrice Bergeron went 17-2 in the faceoff circle.

Milan Lucic led the Bruins with 4 hits.

Onto the next one
The Bruins are now 47-28-4 with 98 points and 3 games left in the season. The next game for the Bruins is Tuesday hosting the Pittsburgh Penguins in Boston at 7:30pm ET.

It's looking more and more like the Bruins will face the Ottawa Senators in the first round of the playoffs. We'll see what happens with the remainder of the season. The game on Thursday against the Senators should be an interesting one, maybe a message sending game similar to the wild Penguins-Flyers game today. But I don't think we'll be seeing Claude Julien stand on the benches yelling at the Senators coach.