Chris Kreider had a hat trick, Adam Fox had four assists and Jonathan Quick made 31 saves, a season-high, as the New York Rangers defeated the Montreal Canadiens 7-4 at Madison Square Garden on Thursday. Achieved 6 consecutive wins.
Mika Zibanejad added a goal and two assists for the Rangers, and Will Quill, Vincent Trocheck and Kaapo Kakko also had goals.
Artemi Panarin added three assists.
The Rangers tied their season best by scoring four points in the 4:10 span of the second period after Montreal took a 1-0 lead in the first period.
Cole Caufield scored two goals twice for Montreal, but Montreal lost three of four games. Jake Evans and July Slavkowski also scored for the Canadian team.
Quick, 38, became the oldest goaltender in Rangers history with four straight wins.
His overall record this season is 13 wins, 4 losses, and 2 draws, and with this win he moves into a tie with Dominik Hasek for 15th place in NHL history (389 points).
Quick is three wins away from tying Ryan Miller for the most wins by an American-born goaltender with 391.
Evans took the lead with his fourth goal of the season, beating Quick at 14:29 of his first goal.
Kreider tied it at 11:09 of the second. Immediately after being denied on the breakaway by Canadian goaltender Sam Montembeau, Kreider funneled the puck into the Montreal net. Zibanejad and Jacob Trouba had assists.
Quill scored his 10th goal at 12:27, giving the home team a 2-1 lead. Fox and Ryan Lindgren collaborated.
Zibanejad then extended the lead with a shorthanded goal at 14:43. After Fox and Panarin assisted Zibanejad past Montembeau for his 17th goal of the season, Kreider made it 4-1 with his second goal of the night on the power play at 15:19.
Slavkovsy scored his 12th goal at 16:30 of the second game, closing the gap to 4-2.
Trocheck added his 16th point at the 4:23 mark to restore the three-point lead, and Caufield scored on a power play at 6:53 to make it 5-3.
Kreider completed his sixth career hat trick with his 27th goal at 7:59, with assists to Zibanejad and Jimmy Vesey.
The 32-year-old forward has scored 292 goals in total, ranking him third at Rangers behind Rod Gilbert (406) and Jean Ratel (336).
Kakko increased the lead to 7-3 with his sixth goal at 9:56, before Caufield scored his second goal of the game and 19th of the season at 11:27.
Rangers forward Blake Wheeler injured his right foot midway through the first period and had to be helped off the ice.
The team later announced that Wheeler would miss the remainder of the game due to a lower-body injury.
The 37-year-old right winger was brought down along the boards by Montreal defenseman Jayden Struble behind the Canadiens’ net with 11 minutes left. Wheeler fell backwards, his right leg bent at an unnatural angle.
He was unable to put weight on his legs as he tried to stand up, and teammates helped him off the ice. A stretcher was waiting just inside the runway.
