Bruins Claw Rangers

Jason Allison figured he wouldn't go scoreless this season. Still, it's nice to know for sure.

"I was getting a little frustrated," Allison said after scoring his first goal of the season the Bruins' 5-3 victory over the New York Rangers on Thursday night. "Seems like I was hitting a lot of posts, but hopefully this will get me started."

Allison led the Bruins in scoring last season with 76 points, including 23 goals. He entered the game with 13 assists.

Anson Carter added a goal and an assist, and Hal Gill and Shawn Bates scored their first goals of the season to help Boston extend its winning streak to three games. Joe Thornton had an empty-net goal and two assists to push his Bruins-leading points total to 19.

"Not a lot of good things happen when you are not winning," Rangers defenseman Brian Leetch said. "That is another reason, personally, this game hurts, because we have a lot of respect for John."

Byron Dafoe made 24 saves for the Bruins, 9-1-2 in their last 12 games and 5-0-3 in their last eight at home.

"I feared this game after we spanked them pretty good in their own building," Boston coach Pat Burns said. "I didn't know how our guys were going to react to that."

The Rangers scored three consecutive oals after falling behind 4-0, cutting the deficit to one when Adam Graves scored with just under five minutes to play. Theo Fleury missed a chance to tie it with a minute to go when his shot hit the post.

"We dug ourselves a hole, but we played a really good third period," he said. "I would have loved for that one to go in, believe me."

Carter and Allison scored 1:42 apart in the second period.

Carter opened the scoring at 6:42, flipping the puck past goalie Mike Richter after a backhand attempt by Thornton.

Allison made it 2-0 when his slap shot trickled through Richter's pads. Gill scored on a slap shot from the blue line to give the Bruins a 3-0 lead at 16:09 of the second period.

The Rangers mounted a comeback in the third period when Jan Hlavac and Mike Knuble scored just under three minutes apart.

Hlavac converted a pass from Petr Nedved, and wristed a shot over the right shoulder of Dafoe. Knuble cut the lead to 4-2 when his slap shot beat Dafoe inside the left post.

"The Rangers played like a desperate team," Dafoe said. "Give them another five or six minutes and there could have been a different outcome."

Bates scored the Bruins' fourth goal when he backhanded a shot past Richter while falling on the ice.

Richter made 20 saves for New York.

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