Bruins 3, Rangers 1

BOSTON -- Back at the NHL trade deadline, the Boston Bruins thought they had swung a deal with Calgary for future Hall of Famer Jarome Iginla.

But Iginla, who had no-trade protection, said he wanted to go to Pittsburgh because he thought the Penguins had a better chance to win the Stanley Cup.

Now, Iginla and the Penguins will get a chance to see if Iginla was right.

The Bruins, looking for their second Stanley Cup in the last three years, finished off the New York Rangers in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Saturday with a 3-1 victory.

Boston moves on to the conference finals to face Iginla, Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and the rest of the top-seeded Pens.

You want more subplots for the series? OK, Matt Cooke was the guy who started Marc Savard on his path to what looks like retirement with an elbow to the head in 2010. And Jaromir Jagr, also a future Hall of Famer, is playing for the Bruins now and faces the Penguins, a team he won two Stanley Cups with two decades ago.

The Penguins swept the three-game season series from the Bruins, but all three games were one-goal decisions.

Bruins rookie sensation Torey Krug and fourth-liner Gregory Campbell beat an again-heroic Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist (29 saves, many of them tough) with second-period goals and Campbell added his second goal into an empty net as Boston dominated the second and third periods.

Krug's goal was his fourth in five games since being called up from Providence because of injuries. The Elias Sports Bureau reports that he is the first defenseman in the post-expansion era to score four goals in his first five playoff games.

In the series, 11 of the 16 Bruins goals were scored by defensemen (seven) or the fourth line.

Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask, who yielded two poor goals to help keep the Rangers alive in Game 4, made 27 saves but wasn't severely tested. He did stop a Ryan Callahan breakaway in the third period, raising his record in potential closeout games to 3-8.

Defenseman Dan Girardi scored a power-play goal for the Rangers in the first period. Krug then answered with his third power-play goal at 3:48 of the second period, and Campbell cashed in a rebound after two giveaways by ancient defenseman Roman Hamrlik led to the scoring rush.

Before the game, Rangers coach John Tortarella, asked about the effect on his team to have won Game 4 to stay alive, said, "We haven't, even through it all, not just the last day, we've been fine in the room.

"We win a game. The momentum's on your side and you try to keep it as the game starts here."

His team, seeded sixth in the conference (the Bruins were No. 4) before beating No. 3 Washington in seven games, came out and played a strong first period, probably their best period of the one-sided series.

But the Bruins, down three goals before rallying past Toronto in Game 7 of the first round, took over from there.

And when it ended, Lundqvist, on the bench after being pulled again, put his head down on his arms before going out for the handshake. He got a hug from Jagr, an ex-teammate, before the Bruins saluted their fans prior to leaving the ice.

NOTES: The teams played almost five full minutes before the first whistle. ... Boston's Shawn Thornton and New York's Derek Dorsett fought 6:49 into the game. ... The 1-0 lead by the Rangers after one period marked the first time in the series the teams weren't tied after one. ... With defenseman Dennis Seidenberg back (his first game of the series), rookie Dougie Hamilton, beaten for the Rangers' winning goal on Thursday night, was a healthy scratch. Andrew Ference and Wade Redden were still out because of injuries. ... The Rangers were still missing defensemen Mark Staal and Anton Stralman. ... New York center Derek Stepan took a puck to the face on Michael Del Zotto's shot early but returned later in the period. ... Tortorella on Lundqvist coming up big in elimination games: "You know what? I don't even pay attention to Henrik. I know he's going to be there. No, he stops the puck. All the time." ... Brad Richards was again a healthy scratch for the Rangers. ... The Bruins called up goalie Niklas Svedberg from Providence after the AHL team, stripped of defensemen Krug and Matt Bartkowski with a 3-0 lead in the second round of the playoffs, lost the next four and ended their season. "He's here, he's had a great year, and he deserved to be here with us," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "Certainly he's going to help us along the way here give Tuukka some (practice) rest when needed." ... Brothers J.P. and Paul Norden of Stoneham, Mass., both Boston Marathon bombing victims, were the pregame honorary fan banner captains.