King Henrik bailed his team out. The Rangers can thank their second-year Swedish netminder for helping them steal two huge points- finishing with 40 saves in a 2-1 come from behind shootout win over the Bruins at TD Bankforth Garden Saturday.

Trailing a much sharper Boston squad by a goal one week after dismantling them 7-0 at MSG on St. Patrick’s Day, the Blueshirts struggled to find offense against Bruins’ backup goalie Joey MacDonald. Unable to beat the ex-Wing who was picked up on waivers last month through the first 58 minutes of regulation, it looked like they would have a costly loss. Then an unlikely source provided arguably the biggest goal of the season to date.

Off a Jaromir Jagr pass which bounced off a Bruin, defenseman Thomas Pock fired a rolling puck past MacDonald to tie the score with just 100 seconds left. It was his second of the season, snapping a 33-game goal drought. Michael Nylander, who was strong all game also registered his 600th career assist.

“For us, there’s no easy game right now,” Pock told the AP after scoring his first goal since Oct. 10. “Every one of the games is a playoff game…We struggled the first two periods, but Henrik [Lundqvist] kept us in the game. He’s been doing it every night. The way he’s been playing is why the defense and forwards can play the way we are.”

His late dramatics forced overtime. But as was the case all day in which they were a stride off taking lazy penalties, the Rangers made the task of getting a valuable extra point difficult when Petr Prucha was sent to the box for hooking with 1:31 remaining. It gave the Bruins their eighth power play. Thanks to Lundqvist and some splendid penalty killing by a unit which was outstanding all day including a crucial late second period five-minute kill of an undisciplined Ryan Hollweg boarding major, they got it to a shootout.

With the Rangers up one after a round thanks to Nylander’s backhand deke topshelf, Matt Cullen was stopped and then Patrice Bergeron deked Lundqvist beating him five-hole to square it. It set the stage for Jagr. The team captain came through by wristing one thru MacDonald’s five-hole to give New York the lead. All that was left was one more big save for Lundqvist, who outwaited rookie Phil Kessel forcing him wide to give the Blueshirts their fourth consecutive victory.

It was even bigger because the Islanders pulled out a 4-3 win in Philadelphia to get to 83 points. The Rangers will enter tomorrow’s pivotal match-up set for 12:30 PM on NBC at Nassau Coliseum in seventh two points ahead of their most bitter rival. They’ll also visit the Islanders one more time in the third to last game of the season on April 3rd. The two meetings could decide if either makes the postseason.

After a lackluster first period in which they killed four minors, Tom Renney’s club struggled mightily in the second. With Boston playing more physical and the Rangers not as sharp in their zone, they finally fell behind.

Off a turnover, ex-Ranger Marc Savard rebounded home a Shean Donovan shot in front and beat Lundqvist for his 22nd at 8:06, making it the first time the Rangers trailed 1-0 in eight games.
The task became even harder when Hollweg took a boarding major. However, Lundqvist and the penalty killers bailed their teammate out. They were even able to generate a couple of shorthanded chances but MacDonald kicked out Sean Avery’s left wing blast to keep his team ahead after 40 minutes.

Finally playing with more zip in the third, the Rangers drew a couple of power plays but couldn’t capitalize. They also were forced to kill a lazy Jagr hook with less than 10 minutes left.

Despite putting more pressure on Boston, they were running out of time. A bad neutral zone turnover led to a huge chance for the Bruins to put it out of reach. That’s when Lundqvist made his biggest save of the contest.

With players scrambling in front searching for a rebound, the goalie somehow got his outstretched pad on an Aaron Ward shot while sprawled out- robbing the former Ranger of a sure goal.

It gave his team one final chance to comeback.

Notes: Forward Martin Straka returned from a bruised knee which kept him out of the previous two games, logging 19:38 with one shot while playing on the top line with Jagr and Nylander. He replaced Brad Isbister, who was a healthy scratch. … In a losing effort, MacDonald finished with 35 saves. … Due in large part to early power plays, the Bruins got the game’s first 10 shots. … The Rangers haven’t allowed a first period goal in nine straight.