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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Head coach John Tortorella believes the Rangers possess character and resilience. Those attributes were on full display last night.

There will be at least one more hockey game contested at Madison Square Garden in this abbreviated season after the Rangers evened the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series after a 4-3 win over the Capitals in Game 4 Wednesday night. Game 5 is Friday night at the Verizon Center.

“We got the job done,” said Dan Girardi, who was one of four goal-scorers for the Rangers last night.

Derek Stepan’s goal 6:02 into the third period was the game-winner. Brad Richards and Carl Hagelin also scored goals for the Rangers. Henrik Lundqvist made 27 saves.

The series is now a best-of-three, and neither team has been able to win a game on the road in the first four games.

“We feel good now,” Ryan Callahan said. “We have to keep the momentum and keep the confidence rolling. … It’s a tough building to play in. They play [well] there.”

Richards opened the scoring 16:25 into the first to culminate a bizarre sequence. A shaky Braden Holtby (30 saves) attempted a bad clear that was knocked down by Taylor Pyatt and intercepted by Hagelin, who blasted a slap shot into John Carlson. The rebound bounced out to Richards, who ripped a shot into a half-empty cage.

Hagelin doubled the lead with his second of the series at 10:13 of the second. The left wing one-timed Derick Brassard’s gorgeous cross-ice feed over Holtby’s glove. Brassard has four points in the four games.

“[Brassard] grabbed a hold of it here and makes just a great play on [Girardi’s] goal,” Tortorella said. “He’s stepped in here to try and make a difference and he’s made some big plays for us. I’m not afraid to put him in a lot of different positions in a lot of different situations.”

The Rangers never trailed in the game and, in fact, dominated the Southeast Division champions for the first 35 minutes. But the teams went into the second intermission tied at 2-2.

Mathieu Perreault cut the deficit in half at 13:08 of the second period by stuffing Joel Ward’s rebound through Lundqvist. Troy Brouwer evened the game with 18 seconds left in the period with a backhander after Mike Green was able to keep a loose puck in at the blue line.

“It took us a little while but once we got our legs, I thought it was a pretty good hockey game,” Capitals head coach Adam Oates said. “I think we gave them a couple chances too many. We made a couple mistakes.”

Girardi put the Rangers back up, 3-2, 59 seconds into the third, with a slapshot goal on the power play. Stepan’s goal nearly six minutes later doubled the lead.

“Getting that goal right away by Girardi was key,” Hagelin said. “That’s what we talked about in here [during the second intermission], ‘We want to get the next one.’ They obviously had a good last five minutes there in the second but we came in with a lot of confidence in the third that we were going to score on the [power play], and we did.”

Karl Alzner cut the lead to one, 4-3, with 7:31 left.

From there, the Rangers implemented a rope-a-dope strategy against the Capitals, who shot from everywhere to no avail. The Capitals had 25 shot attempts in the final 7:31.

“Guys are confident. You can’t panic. We weren’t trying to throw pucks away but in those situations you’re just trying to get it out [and] they picked some off,” Girardi said. “For the most part, guys were blocking shots, keep everything to the outside and we found a way to get the win.”

Follow Rangers beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.

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The Rangers earned one point, but they left another on the table.

New York dropped a 3-2 decision to the Capitals in the shootout Sunday night at the Garden.

“I’m thinking about points. We get a point,” head coach John Tortorella said. “Would we like to have two? Yes. But we didn’t get it.”

Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin scored for the Capitals during both the game and skills competition. Ovechkin finished with a goal and an assist. Braden Holtby made 30 saves.

Ovechkin slipped the puck between the post and Lundqvist’s pad for the first shootout goal. Backstrom ripped a laser that beat Lundqvist glove side for the game-winner.

“I only stopped two-of-four in the shootout,” said Henrik Lundqvist, who made 22 saves in the first 65 minutes. “I have to be better. You face really good players. I think the last one was a really good shot but Ovechkin, [I] felt like I had him but I didn’t get the stick down.”

Despite having lost consecutive games, the Rangers moved to eighth in the East. Arron Asham and Derek Stepan scored for the Rangers. Stepan scored the Rangers’ lone goal in the shootout.

“I’m not even thinking about playoffs,” Tortorella said.

One of the themes that has marked this Rangers campaign has been slow starts. Last night was no different as Washington jumped out to a 2-0 lead on the power of goals from Backstrom and Ovechkin in a span of 2:09.

“After they got the first one, we were stunned a little bit. We just kind of sat back and let them play,” Dan Girardi said. “Obviously we want two points but we need to get any point we can at this stage. But there are a lot of good things we can take from today.”

Following Ovechkin’s goal, the Garden denizens booed the Blueshirts viciously. But by the end of the period, the 17,200 in attendance were delirious as the teams went into intermission tied at 2-2.

Asham began the comeback with an off-the-rush goal to cut the deficit in half 14:12 into the period. The goal was Asham’s second of the season. Stepan tied the game with 1:57 left on a shot that pinballed off Holtby’s stick.

“I thought after the first 10 minutes we responded well — getting two goals and tying it after the first,” Ryan Callahan said. “We had chances in the second and third. We just couldn’t find the next one and eventually they did in the shootout.”

The game remained tied despite the Rangers having a 25-10 advantage in shots spanning the final two regulation periods and overtime.

“We just closed out defensively,” Girardi said. “We tried to keep everything to the outside, blocking shots like we always do, getting through the neutral zone and not turning any pucks over. When we are playing down [in] their end, it limits their shots.”

The second period was not nearly as wild as the first because the goaltenders stepped to the forefront. Lundqvist turned away all four Capital shots he faced, while Holtby stopped the nine shots he faced.

While the majority of shots the goaltenders saw were harmless, each team had a chance to break the deadlock in the second period. Marian Gaborik missed on a breakaway backhander with 8:19 left in the second, while Lundqvist stopped consecutive shots off the sticks of Mike Ribeiro and Karl Alzner with a minute left in the period.

Follow Rangers beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.

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It is an inescapable theme: the Rangers need offense.

“It’s no secret we’re [struggling],” Derek Stepan said Tuesday afternoon before the Rangers-Devils game at the Prudential Center. Despite their 2-1 shootout win over the Hurricanes Monday night, the Rangers have only scored 64 goals in 28 games.

The Rangers do not have a player in double-figure goal scoring. Rick Nash and Ryan Callahan are tied for the team lead with nine goals apiece.

So what has to change?

“Try to get yourself in a dirty area,” Stepan said. Stepan scored the Rangers’ lone non-shootout goal Monday night on a play in which he drilled a bullet past Dan Ellis, who was screened by Callahan. “Pretty simple.”

While the Rangers could use Chris Kreider, they will not “keep knee-jerking” him from AHL Connecticut and ruin his development.

Kreider has 11 goals and 19 points with the Whale this season. He has scored six goals in eight games with the Whale since being sent down on Feb. 16.

But despite what Rangers head coach John Tortorella termed “good reports” on Kreider from the coaching staff at the Whale, the wing will not be a short-term fix.

“[The organization does not] want to keep knee-jerking him,” Tortorella said. “We’re dying to get a guy — 6-foot-2 or 6-foot-3 and can skate like hell — but [we’re not going to do it] at the expense of him and the expense of [his] development.”

Points over rivalry

The Hudson River Rivalry is a given, but for the Devils, a possible two points is more important than reviving hostilities with the Rangers.

The Devils entered last night’s game in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, two points ahead of the No. 9 seed Rangers. The salary cap-created parity has 13 of the 15 Eastern Conference teams and 14 of the 15 Western Conference teams still alive in the playoff race.

“Obviously the rivalry is always there but I think where we are in the standings, there’s probably a mixture of eight or nine teams. We’re all battling it out for the last few spots. I think that’s going to be like that for the next month,” Devils head coach Pete DeBoer told reporters after the Devils’ morning skate at the Prudential Center.

“For us we have to find a way to pick up points every night,” DeBoer said. “Even on the nights we don’t win, we have to find a way to get games to overtime, to win your shootout opportunities when you get them. Those are all opportunities to pick up points instead of leaving them on the table.”

Brodeur activated

The Devils announced early Tuesday afternoon goaltender Martin Brodeur had been activated from the injured reserve. Goaltender Jeff Frazee was reassigned to AHL Albany in the corresponding roster move. The Devils also called up Tim Sestito from AHL Albany.

Brodeur told reporters after practice Monday he had been bothered by a pinched nerve. He backed up Johan Hedberg last night and it is thought he will start tomorrow night in Carolina.

Follow Rangers beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.

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It is not a surprise that Rick Nash is top-line wing.

Carl Hagelin and Derek Stepan being his linemates might be, especially when considering the high-end talent that makes up the 2013 edition of the Rangers.

But according to head coach John Tortorella, Hagelin and Stepan have earned the job on merit.

“I just don’t think they’re afraid,” Tortorella said during his pregame press conference. “I think sometimes when you’re playing with top players, you end up trying to get them the puck. You just change your game.

“Hags is a very confident guy. Step is a guy who’s been here, understands the personnel. I thought played his best game of the year in [the Rangers’ 4-3 shootout win] Boston [Tuesday night]. He was killing penalties, everything. Strong on the puck. He’s a guy that needs to be able to do that. We have him as a second-line center for this year. Right now he’s on the top line. He can handle that.”

Isles dealing with offensive issues

It would be hard to overstate the importance of last night’s Garden match for the Islanders.

Facing their urban rivals for the second time in a week, the Islanders entered Thursday night’s game with an 0-5-0 record in February. The slide has the Islanders last in the Atlantic Division and they reside in the league’s cellar with Washington.

Among the primary reasons for the Islanders’ nosedive has been an offensive outage. Opponents have outscored the Islanders 20-9 in the five games. Of their nine goals, five have come at even strength. The remaining four were scored on the power play.

Head coach Jack Capuano believes the offensive problems are twofold.

“Five-on-five, there’s a couple things,” Capuano said. “It’s not about structural where we’re at. It’s about defending. Go back. The [Thomas] Vanek goal, the [Eric] Staal goal, I mean we’re right there but we’re not strong enough in front of our net. We have to be stronger. We have to defend with our sticks and making sure we’re boxing guys out.”

The other issue has been a lack of production from the second, third and fourth lines. The top line of Brad Boyes, John Tavares and Matt Moulson have combined for 16 goals and 37 points. The remaining three lines have recorded 15 goals and 36 points.

“The offensive side, we tweaked the lines a little bit like we did early on in the season,” Capuano said. “We’re going to have to get some secondary scoring, especially on the road where their top ‘D’ against our top lines. The other lines have to get going to help us out a little bit.”

Follow Rangers beat writer Denis Gorman on Twitter @DenisGorman.

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