MONTREAL — Nearly half the game had gone by before the Rangers found their own game Saturday night.
Once they did, however, it was impossible for the Canadiens to suppress as the Blueshirts forced overtime to collect one point before Cole Caufield scored in the shootout to win it, 4-3, for the home team.
With the loss, the Rangers missed out on an opportunity to hop back into first place in the NHL.
The Rangers spiraled through the first 25 minutes or so of this one, falling into a 3-0 hole by the 2:39 mark of the second period.
Montreal unloaded a one-two punch a minute and 30 seconds apart with goals from Sean Monahan and Joel Armia in the middle frame.
It had the Bell Centre crowd confidently singing, “Olay, Olay, Olay.”
After the Rangers got their blood pumping from killing off Chris Kreider’s hooking penalty, however, the visitors quickly quieted the stands down.
Vincent Trocheck deflected an Erik Gustafsson shot past Montreal goalie Sam Montembeault, who did not make it easy on the Rangers with 17 saves in the middle frame alone on the way to 47 on the night.
Montembeault was impenetrable in the shootout — stopping Artemi Panarin, Mika Zibanejad and Alexis Lafreniere.
The tide had officially turned and the Rangers rode it right back into the game.
Winning the faceoff draw less than five minutes later, Trocheck pushed the puck forward and dished to Panarin without hesitation.
Panarin had also skated right toward the net, which gave the star Russian wing a clear shot for his 25th goal of the season and the 3-2 score.
The equalizer came from Adam Fox, who snapped a 19-game goal drought with a snap shot from the top of the zone at the 9:30 mark of the third period.
At that point, the fans clad in blue sprinkled around the arena broke out in their own song, a “Let’s go Rangers” chant.
Jonathan Quick helped stabilize the Rangers after Montreal had seemingly blown the game open. With 27 saves in the loss, Quick fell to 9-2-2.
The Canadiens came out with twice as much intensity as the Rangers, who gave up the first goal for the second time in the past three games.
After Kaiden Guhle was called for tripping Zibanejad at the 7:23 mark, the Rangers’ first-place power play couldn’t break through against Montreal’s second-to-last penalty kill despite extensive zone time.
The Habs even garnered momentum from it, which poured over into five-on-five play.
A failed clearing attempt from the Rangers then led to Brendan Gallagher’s first goal in 25 games.
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