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(Sports Network) - A key battle in the Eastern Conference playoff race is on tap today as the Boston Bruins host the New York Rangers at TD Garden.

The Bruins are holding onto the eighth and final playoff seed with 74 points, but they hardly own a comfortable lead. Boston is just one point ahead of Atlanta, which will face Philadelphia tonight, and three points in front of the 10th-seeded Rangers.

Meanwhile, the Rangers will try to complete a four-game series sweep of Boston today. New York won the previous three encounters in regulation and has taken six of eight overall in the series. The Blueshirts had dropped four straight in Boston before posting a 3-1 victory the last time the clubs met on Jan. 9.

Neither Boston nor the Rangers enter Sunday on a hot streak. New York has lost two straight and six of its last eight contests, while the Bruins have dropped three of four and five of their last seven.

The Rangers were dealt a regulation loss on Thursday, dropping a 4-3 decision to visiting St. Louis. Paul Kariya's 400th career goal put the Blues ahead for good in the third period.

Henrik Lundqvist let in all four goals on 16 shots for the Rangers, while Ryan Callahan, Marian Gaborik and Wade Redden scored in the loss.

"It felt like they didn't have to work that hard for the goals tonight," Lundqvist said. "Some mistakes from our side. Just very disappointing."

Lundqvist has excellent career numbers against Boston, however, going 13-3-2 with a 1.36 goals against average and four shutouts in 18 games against the Bruins.

The Rangers enter today with a 16-14-3 record as the guest this year. New York will play eight of 11 games on the road to end the regular season.

The Bruins also failed to pick up a point on Thursday, losing a 3-0 decision against the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins. Marc-Andre Fleury needed to make just 17 saves to post his first shutout of the season for Pittsburgh.

Tuukka Rask allowed three goals on 31 shots for the Bruins.

It was the first meeting between the clubs since a March 7 contest which saw Pittsburgh forward Matt Cooke elbow Bruins forward Marc Savard in the head, causing Savard to suffer a concussion and to presumably miss the remainder of the regular season.

Less than two minutes into Thursday's contest, Cooke had to answer for his actions as B's forward Shawn Thornton engaged him in a fight. Thornton emerged a clear winner, but it failed to stoke the home team's fires.

"We certainly defended our teammate well," Bruins head coach Claude Julien said. "But the other part of the game wasn't there."

The Bruins are just 14-14-6 as the host this year and have lost 11 of their last 12 in Beantown.

To make matters worse, Boston has been bitten by the flu bug, Defensemen Johnny Boychuk and Dennis Seidenberg and forward Marco Sturm are all questionable for today with the illness.