The Bruins had plenty of good things going for them Thursday night at the Garden. Energy. Attack. Strong skating, sharp passing, a bucket full of good scoring chances. In the nine games of the Bruce Cassidy era, it really was among their best performances.

“Good effort,’’ said Patrice Bergeron, their heart-and-soul centerman, whose five shots on net topped the Bruins’ 33-shot effort. “But at the same time, points are at a premium right now, and we can’t afford not to get them.’’

Such is the reality of a well-played night when it ends with a goose egg in the points column. The Rangers, led by third-period strikes by Pavel Buchnevich and Oscar Lindberg, pinned a 2-1 defeat on the Bruins before a sellout crowd of 17,565 on Causeway Street.

The loss, only their second under Cassidy’s watch (7-2-0), ended the Bruins’ run of four straight wins on home ice. It also terminated a stretch of six games in which the Bruins scored first. And it was the only time since Cassidy took over for the fired Claude Julien on Feb. 7 that the Bruins never once, not even for a second, managed to work with a lead.

But all that said, they controlled play much of the night, especially off the hop when they landed the night’s first seven shots on net, not allowing the Blueshirts to test Tuukka Rask until Rick Nash put a shot on net 11:35 into the first period. If not for the airtight work of Henrik Lundqvist in the Ranger net (ever hear that before?), the Bruins easily could have pinned up a three-goal lead by the 15:00 mark of the first and renewed what has become a familiar buzz inside the Garden over the last three weeks.

“Our starts have been very good, and that was a bit of the story of the game,’’ said Cassidy, whose club remained parked in third place in the Atlantic Division. “Even though it came down to the third period where they outscored us, 2-1. We had a 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.’’

In the end, King Henrik finished with 32 saves, while Tuukka Rask turned back 19 of 21, left with little chance on the strikes by Buchnevich (a laser tee shot from the right wing faceoff­ dot) or Lindberg (a top-shelf finish after a dipsy doodle around rookie Brandon Carlo). Carlo could have been sharper on both strikes.

“The takeaway,’’ said Cassidy, “is that we lost. And at this time of the year, we need points. That’s the big picture.’’

The Bruins cut the Blueshirt lead in half at 12:56 when Brad Marchand jammed home his team-high 29th of the season, set up by a superb, one-armed, belly-sliding feed by David Pastrnak after the Czech magician was hauled down by Nick Holden.

“He got the stick between my legs,’’ shrugged Pastrnak. “Good job by March to get it on net.’’

The goal, on the 30th shot Lundqvist faced, pushed the Boston attack up a gear or two. They had fire, momentum, and Cassidy was shaking up his lines to put the bellows to the growing fire. Then with 2:22 left in regulation, a barreling David Backes cut right-left across the crease and clipped Lundqvist at the top of the blue paint.

It looked as if: 1. Backes made a concerted effort to avoid contact; 2. The point of contact was a smidge outside the paint; and 3. Lundqvist essentially courted the contact by moving into Backes. Outcome: two-minute minor on Backes for goalie interference. And that energized Boston attack? Flatter than a ’73 Mustang battery on a minus-20 morning in central Manitoba.

“I obviously don’t agree with it,’’ said Backes. “I was going to the net, trying to avoid him and then he came out to initiate it. We had tons of momentum. A frustrating way to finish the game when we played pretty well the whole time and we were making a push there at the end.’’

With 2.2 seconds left on the clock, the Bruins won a faceoff to Lundqvist’s left, with Torey Krug set up for a potential game-tying Hail Mary wrister. But the puck squibbed away from him, followed immediately by the two points in the standings.

“I am not going to fault our effort,’’ said Cassidy. “Our effort was there to get back in the game. Our effort was there to score goals. The couple of goals they scored, you know, we have to defend better. At the end of the day, not quite enough.’’

Now 33-25-6, the Bruins have 18 games to go in the regular season. The standings are tighter than a pair of skinny jeans wrapped around the tree-trunk legs of Blades, the behemoth Bruins mascot. How they play these next four-plus weeks, perhaps right down to game No. 82, will determine if the puck stays live this spring in the Hub of Hockey.

“We’re getting closer to that time,’’ said Bergeron, “and you can tell that we all want those points. Even the atmosphere in the building was great and the fans were awesome — but unfortunately we couldn’t get the two points.’’

Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at kevin.dupont@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeKPD.