Not even Don Draper could spin what happened Sunday afternoon into anything other than a disaster.

The Rangers are two losses away from a premature and unsatisfying end to a season which began with Stanley Cup aspirations after absorbing a 5-2 loss to the Bruins at the TD Garden in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The Bruins lead the best-of-seven series, 2-0. Game 3 is Tuesday night at The Garden.

What is most troubling is that the Rangers have not had an appropriate response to the Bruins’ momentum surges in the first two games. For all intents and purposes, yesterday’s matinee was decided 26 seconds into the third period when Boston’s nominal second-liners Patrice Bergeron and Brad Marchand hooked up on the Bruins’ fourth goal.

Bergeron carried the puck along the wall into the Rangers’ end while being hounded by Michael Del Zotto. The Bruins center held off the defenseman, then fired a perfect saucer pass to a driving Marchand when Dan Girardi momentarily spied Bergeron. In an instant, the Rangers were down 4-2.

Milan Lucic added his third of the post-season 12:13 later to end the scoring. Boston outshot the Rangers 11-10 in the third. The Rangers had a 37-32 advantage in shots on goal.

Torey Krug, Gregory Campbell and Johnny Boychuk also scored goals for the Bruins. Boychuk’s top-of-the-circle wrister at the 12:08 mark of the second period was the game-winning goal.

What will rankle the Rangers is that, for as poorly as they played Sunday afternoon, they had a chance to win. Ryan Callahan and Rick Nash scored goals that tied the game at 1-1 and 2-2, respectively.

However, the Rangers could not score a go-ahead goal, and were unable to slow Boston’s rushes which were marked by defensemen consistently jumping into the play.

Follow Rangers beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.

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First blood goes to the Bruins.

Brad Marchand scored his first goal of the playoffs at the 15:40 mark of overtime to give the Bruins a 3-2 win over the Rangers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series Thursday night at the TD Garden. Boston leads the best-of-seven series, 1-0. Game 2 is Sunday afternoon in Boston.

Marchand finished a counterattack with centerman Patrice Bergeron by tapping a feed under Henrik Lundqvist (45 saves).

The series opener between the Original Six franchises was not the mosh pit most expect the series to become. Instead, the two teams engaged in a feeling-out process.

Zdeno Chara opened the scoring in the series at the 12:23 mark of the second period with a slap shot Lundqvist never could quite control and inadvertently knocked into the goal. The goal ended Lundqvist’s playoff shutout streak at 152:23.

Ryan McDonagh tied the game with 1.3 seconds left in the period. The defenseman finished a sequence which began with a Rick Nash wraparound with his first career Stanley Cup playoff goal.

After the initial shot, Nash broke up a Tyler Seguin clearing attempt, and the puck landed on McDonagh’s stick.

The Rangers took a 2-1 lead 14 seconds into the third period on Derek Stepan’s third of the playoffs. Patrice Bergeron won the faceoff against Stepan to start the period but Marchand was unable to get the puck into the Rangers’ end. The Rangers’ top line counterattacked, finishing with Stepan one-timing Carl Hagelin’s feed past Tuukka Rask (33 saves).

The lead didn’t last long.

Torey Krug, one of three rookie defensemen in the lineup for the Bruins alongside Dougie Hamilton and Matt Bartkowski due to injuries, tied the game 2:41 after Stepan’s goal with his first playoff goal in his first NHL game.

Interestingly, head coach John Tortorella split up his normal top defense pair of McDonagh and Dan Girardi. Girardi started the game paired with Michael Del Zotto, while McDonagh played with Anton Stralman.

Follow Rangers beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.

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