The New York Rangers lost to the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 in a shootout.
NEW YORK, NY -- The New York Rangers lost to the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 in a shootout. The back-and-forth hockey contest was a wide-open north-south affair that ultimately ended in the skills competition.
Here’s how it happened:
Brendan Gallagher opened the scoring 11:37 into the first period, on a great individual box-out effort assisted by Jake Evans and David Savard. The gritty forward got underneath Blake Wheeler standing still and finished off the play for his sixth score of the year.
Sean Monahan and Joel Armia put the Canadiens up 3-0 just two minutes into the second period.
The back-and-forth track meet suggested it was only a matter of time before the Rangers responded. Vincent Trocheck tipped a puck from a Gustafsson point shot 10:28 into the second frame.
Artemi Panarin scored his 25th goal of the season off a set faceoff play from Trocheck to get the Rangers within one.
Adam Fox scored on a point shot, the result of a hard-working shift by Jimmy Vesey and Will Cuylle. Fox led the team with 25:37 of ice time and scored his first goal since October 28th against Vancouver.
A thrilling extra period offered chances for both teams and Jonathan Quick made a flurry of saves. Alexis Lafreniere, Jacob Trouba, and Mika Zibanejad had chances to end the game, but Montembault answered the bell.
In the shootout, Cole Caulfield buried the go-ahead tally. Mika Zibanejad undressed Sam Montembault, but the goalkeeper lunged back to make a desperation save.
Quebec native Alexis Lafreniere couldn't finish his move on the final Rangers shot attempt of the night, leading to the team's second loss after regulation this year.
Montembault finished with 46 saves on 49 shots, and improved to 4-1 against the Rangers.
Up Next: The Rangers host the Vancouver Canucks on Monday, January 8th at 7 p.m.
Lines:
Kreider-Zibanejad-Wheeler
Panarin-Trocheck-Lafreniere
Cuylle-Bonino-Brodzinski
Vesey-Goodrow-Pitlick
Lindgren-Fox
Miller-Trouba
Gustafsson-Schneider