Rangers Rally Late To Beat Canadiens 5-3
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) — Neal Pionk scored the tie-breaking goal on a sensational, end-to-end rush late in the third period and the New York Rangers rallied to beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-3 on Tuesday night for their fourth straight win.
Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider each had a goal and an assist, Tony DeAngelo and Pavel Buchnevich also scored, and Kevin Hayes had three assists for the Rangers. Henrik Lundqvist made 31 saves.
New York trailed 3-1 early in the second period before scoring the last four goals — three in the third.
On the go-ahead goal, Pionk brought the puck from behind the Rangers net, spun around one Montreal player, skated up the left side, cut in toward the front of the Canadiens net and put it past goalie Carey Price while falling to the ice with 2:44 left.
Zibanejad capped the scoring after he brought the puck up the left side and tried to send a pass across in front. The puck defected back to him off Jeff Petry's skate and Zibanejad put it past Price with 1:48 to go.
Tomas Tatar had two goals and Max Domi also scored for Montreal, which was 7-3-1 in its last 11 games. Brendan Gallagher and Petry each had two assists, and Price stopped 27 shots.
The Rangers began their comeback late in the middle period. Just after New York's power play expired, DeAngelo tipped a shot by Hayes for his second goal with 2:15 left to make it 3-2.
New York tied the score near midway through the third. Hayes brought the puck down the right side and passed to his left to Marc Staal, who fired a shot that Price knocked down with his glove. With the puck laying on the ice, Buchnevich skated in and put it in before Price could smother it at 8:25.
The teams combined for 44 minutes of penalties, including a 10-minute misconduct on the Rangers' Cody McLeod in the second period. Montreal finished 1 for 7 on the power play, and New York was 0 for 6.
With the score tied 1-all after one period, Tatar put the Canadiens back ahead with his fifth of the season and second of the game as he tipped a pass from Philip Danault through the legs of a sprawled Lundqvist at 4:40.
Montreal then doubled its lead on a power play less than two minutes later. Domi was standing in front and got a pass from Gallagher from the left side of the goal line, slid the puck to his backhand and put it in from the right side for his ninth at 6:27 to make it 3-1.
Tatar got the Canadiens on the scoreboard 23 seconds into the game as he skated in on an odd-man rush and beat Lundqvist from the left circle. It came on the first shot of the game.
New York tied the score with 4:10 left in the opening period. Hayes skated up the left side on a rush and tried to send a pass across to Kreider, but the puck deflected off the stick of a sliding Canadiens player right back to him. Hayes then sent a pass across the front of the crease to Kreider who put it in from the right side before Price could slide back over. It was Kreider's seventh goal, and third in four games.
UP NEXT:
The Rangers head to Detroit on Friday night to open a back-to-back on the road.
(© Copyright 2018 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
