After holding a lead, the Montreal Canadiens gave up four goals in the second period as the New York Rangers cruised to victory.
GAME RECAP | Montreal Canadiens 4 vs New York Rangers 7 | FINAL
Canadiens Lineup
Forwards
22 Cole Caufield - 14 Nick Suzuki - 20 Juraj Slafkovsky
70 Tanner Pearson - 71 Jake Evans - 17 Josh Anderson
89 Joshua Roy - 15 Alex Newhook - 40 Joel Armia
55 Michael Pezzetta - 74 Brandon Gignac - 11 Brendan Gallagher
Defensemen
8 Mike Matheson - 21 Kaiden Guhle
47 Jayden Struble - 58 David Savard
72 Arber Xhekaj - 26 Johnathan Kovacevic
Goaltenders
Starter: 35 Sam Montembeault
Alternate: 34 Jake Allen
Out of the lineup
Scratches: Cayden Primeau, Jesse Ylonen
Injuries: Carey Price (knee), Chris Wideman (back), Kirby Dach (knee), Christian Dvorak (upper body), Rafael Harvey-Pinard (lower body), Jordan Harris (upper body)
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT73eKIlDqQ[/embed]
Game Report
How well the Canadiens played on Tuesday night, albeit against the Anaheim Ducks, the 30th place team in the NHL! Tonight was a much different story, against the New York Rangers.
The Rangers, who are top-5 in league standings, got off to a slow start largely due to the Canadiens pressuring their opponents all over the ice. Most importantly, Montreal skaters kept any threats to the outside for the first 30 minutes of the game. The home broadcasters from MSG remarked at what an easy night it was for Sam Montembeault guarding the Montreal net.
With Jake Evans scoring at the 14:29 mark of the first period, the Canadiens enjoyed a lead on the Blue Shirts in Madison Square Garden.
But once the Rangers upped their physical play and started getting their shots through towards Montembeault, the floodgates opened. Chris Kreider and Will Cuylle scored two even strength goals in 1:18. Then Mika Zibanejad netted a short-handed goal. And Chris Kreider notched a power play goal after a failed challenge by Martin St. Louis.
It was a difficult second period for the Canadiens and Montembeault who gave up four unanswered goals in 4:10. Juraj Slafkovsky scored his 12th goal of the season to give his team hope before the middle frame ended.
The third period was a wide open affair as Cole Caufield scored twice to bring his season total to 19 goals. The final frame also saw the Rangers add three goals including Chris Krieder's third goal of the game and the 27th marker of the season.
The Canadiens outshot the Rangers 35-31 and generated more high danger scoring chances 14-13 (all situations, via Natural Stat Trick) but did not get an adequate performance from their goaltender. Expected goals were 2.48 for the Rangers (all situations, via NST) but Montembeault gave up seven.
It was also a difficult game for Michael Pezzetta, Joshua Roy and Arber Xhekaj.
Game Statistics
Canadiens (22-24-8)
Shots: 35
Face-off %: 38.2
Power play: 1/5
Penalty minutes: 8
Hits: 17
Blocks: 10
Rangers (35-16-3)
Shots: 31
Face-off %: 61.8
Power play: 1/4
Penalty minutes: 10
Hits: 27
Blocks: 17
Scoring Summary
Canadiens Scorers
1st period: Evans (4)
2nd period: Slafkovsky (12)
3rd period: Caufield (18)-PPG, Caufield (19)
OT: --
SO: --
Rangers Scorers
1st period: --
2nd period: Kreider (25), Cuylle (10), Zibanejad (17)-PPG, Kreider (26)-PPG
3rd period: Trocheck (16), Kreider (27), Kakko (7)
OT: --
SO: --
Goaltenders
MTL: Sam Montembeault (L) 12-9-4
NYR: Jonathan Quick (W) 13-4-2
Canadiens Players of the Game
Cole Caufield - Caufield scored twice and added an assist.
Juraj Slafkovsky - Slafkovsky scored his sixth goal in his last six games. He also extended his point streak to seven games.
Jake Evans - Evans scored for his second consecutive game.
Video Highlights
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuuN3NbdiLc[/embed]
Post-game Quotes
Martin St. Louis
"From an offensive point of view, we were there. But we made too many small defensive errors which cost us the match. Of course, four goals in four minutes hurts."
Brendan Gallagher
"We gave up four goals quickly, and when there's an atmosphere like that in an arena, it's difficult to stop. We had control of the match, it escaped us, and it's a lesson that we must learn, hoping not to make the same mistakes."
Up Next
Montreal will visit Madison Square Garden on Thursday as they will play the New York Rangers. The Canadiens will return home to host the Capitals on Saturday night.
Be sure to bookmark THN.com/Montreal for year-round coverage of the Montreal Canadiens, Laval Rocket, and Habs prospects playing in leagues around the world.
