Artemi Panarin scored his first goal this season 5:51 into the third period and collected three assists as the New York Rangers rallied from an early two-goal deficit and hung on for a 4-3 victory over the host Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.
The Rangers improved to 7-0-2 in their past nine trips to Montreal and snapped a three-game skid where they scored one goal thanks to Panarin’s best night in the early going.
After setting up Matthew Robertson’s first career goal to snap a 2-2 tie 4:11 into the third, as well as Mika Zibanejad’s first-period power-play tally, Panarin finally scored when he took a pass from Zibanejad undefended and sent a shot from the left circle over goalie Sam Montembeault.
J.T. Miller also scored in the opening minute of the third for the Rangers, who have scored all of their 15 goals on the road.
Panarin’s blast wound up being the game-winner when Noah Dobson scored on a shot from the right point that sailed through traffic about 2 1/2 minutes later.
New York goalie Jonathan Quick made 21 saves, including a sprawling toe stop on Cole Caulfield with 2:09 remaining. He also denied Lane Hutson and Alex Newhook in the final minute to prevent Montreal from a third straight comeback.
Juraj Slafkovsky and Nick Suzuki scored in the opening 3:42, but the Canadiens saw their four-game winning streak stopped and took their first regular-season home regulation loss since Feb. 9 after going 12-0-2 on home ice.
Montembeault allowed four goals on 22 shots for Montreal.
Following a turnover by Robertson to Caulfield near the blue line, Slafkovsky finished off a two-on-one by lifting a shot from the left circle by Quick 93 seconds into the contest.
Suzuki, wide-open in the left circle, took a pass from Demidov during a power play and sent it into the vacated side of the net for a 2-0 lead.
The Rangers scored with 8:04 left when Zibanejad blasted a shot from the top of the right arm over Montembeault before Jake Evans could block the shot. Miller banked in a shot by Adam Fox off his leg to get the Rangers within one goal, and Robertson’s long drive put the Rangers ahead.
