BOSTON -- There are times in the NHL when your goaltender has to steal a game for you.

Thursday night, Henrik Lundqvist did that for the New York Rangers. On his 35th birthday.

"All I wanted today was to win, to be honest with you," Lundqvist said after making 32 saves to carry the Rangers to a 2-1 victory over the Boston Bruins. "My wife asked me the other day 'what do you want for your birthday,' I don't know, nothing. But then today, I want to win, that's all. I want to come here and play my best and try to help the team get a win."

The Rangers, coming off home losses to Columbus and Washington by a combined 9-3, were sleep-skating through the first period, but Lundqvist made several key saves early and never stopped.

"I don't think we were ready to play in the first period, and it could have hurt us but we found a way not to get hurt and we got our legs going and our minds going," Lundqvist said. "But obviously that's a learning lesson there after two losses we need to come up with a lot of desperation but they had a lot of it. They played really well and it took us some time to get going."

Lundqvist also cracked the top 10 on the NHL's all-time wins list as his 403rd victory tied him with Grant Fuhr for 10th.

The Rangers, who had only 21 shots on Tuukka Rask, got third-period goals from Pavel Buchnevich and Oscar Lindberg to give Lundqvist the lead.

The Bruins ended Lundqvist's bid for his 62nd career shutout when during a delayed penalty, Brad Marchand jammed home a rebound for his team-high 29th goal of the season and 12th in the last 14 games. The goal came off a strong effort from David Pastrnak, who made a one-hand pass to Marchand as he was being tripped.

The third loss in as many games against New York this season -- by a 12-5 count -- dropped the Bruins to 7-2 under Bruce Cassidy and handed the interim coach his first loss in five home games.

"Our starts have been very good," Cassidy said. "And that was a bit of the story of the game even though it came down to the third period where they outscored us two to one.

"We had that chance to take the lead and extend the lead in the first period. We were the better team, we had the better chances, gave up nothing. But Lundqvist was good. He's a good goalie -- a very good goalie -- and he showed it tonight and he gave them the chance to win."

The win lifted the Rangers to 22-8-0 on the road with the 22 wins tops in the NHL.

Buchnevich, who had two goals, including the overtime winner, and an assist in a one-game stint for the Hartford Wolfpack of the American Hockey League on Wednesday night, scored 5:10 into the third. Lindberg scored 4:25 later.

The Bruins were ready to press for the tying goal in the final minutes, but David Backes was called for goalie interference when he charged through the crease and ran into Lundqvist with 2:22 left.

"I obviously don't agree with it," Backes said. "I think we can watch the replay, I think I'm going to the net, trying to avoid contact. He comes up to initiate it, and I look and the ref's arm is in the air -- and I sit for the next two minutes in a game where we had tons of momentum and we're making a push at the end."

The two goals gave the Rangers 86 third-period scores this season, the most by any NHL team in any period this season. The third period production helped them go 14-3-2 in games tied after two periods.

Lundqvist defeated the Bruins for the 25th time in his career.

NOTES: LW Michael Grabner, the Rangers' leading goal scorer with 26, was out because of a hip injury suffered in practice Wednesday. ... RW Pavel Buchnevich was recalled from Hartford by the Rangers, who were also without Ds Dan Girardi and Kevin Klein, and RW Jesper Fast. ... D Brendan Smith, acquired from the Detroit Red Wings, made his Rangers debut and played a strong game after a bit of a shaky start. His 20:51 of ice time was second on the team to Ryan McDonagh (27:16) . ... RW Drew Stafford, acquired by the Bruins from the Winnipeg Jets at the trade deadline, arrived but did not play, meeting the media in the press box after the second period. ... The Rangers host the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night in a possible first-round playoff preview while the Bruins host the New Jersey Devils the same night.