MONTREAL — The Rangers can't afford to miss a winnable game.
Sunday night's 5-4 overtime loss to the Canadiens at the Bell Center, a season-best eight-game winning streak, erased the damage from the Blueshirts' terrible period in late November and December. It's not enough, but it needs every point it can earn to start a long-awaited comeback.
After the Rangers led four times, Patrik Laine sealed the Canadiens' victory with a score 3:20 into overtime.
Goalie Jonathan Quick, who made 33 saves in the loss, was denied his third 400 win.
Montreal never let the Rangers let go, tying the score at two-all just over five minutes into the second period on a goal from Christian Dvorak.
Mika Zibanejad was able to regain the lead for the visiting team with his first power-play goal since Dec. 11, but careless play in his own zone (the infamous 4-on-15 stretch the team was trying to break away from) trend) was expensive. .
A turnover by Will Borgen led to a goal by Nick Suzuki, making the game 3-3 at 15:05.
Chris Kreider converted a laser feed from Adam Fox to give the Rangers a one-point lead going into the third period, but Juraj Slavkowski buried the rebound at 12:52 of the final frame to make it four. The score was tied. time.
The Rangers built a 2-1 lead by the first intermission despite having just five shots on goal in the first 20 minutes.
Homegrown Alexis Lafreniere opened the scoring for the Rangers, taking a long shot from K'Andre Miller, but the shot bounced off the wall, over the Canadiens' net and past Montreal goaltender Jakub Dobes. did.
Brendan Gallagher then converted a shot from Dvorak into his stick to tie the game.
However, it took the Blueshirts 46 seconds to regain the lead when Will Quill collected the puck off Zibanejad's forecheck and pounded it with his glove side for a 2-1 advantage.
