Rangers oust the Canadiens
New York — Mats Zuccarello scored twice in the second period and the New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-1 in Game 6 on Saturday night to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals.
Derek Stepan also scored and Henrik Lundqvist stopped 27 shots to help New York get past the first round for the fifth time in six years. The Rangers won three straight after falling behind 2-1 to beat Montreal for the ninth time in 16 postseason series.
The Rangers will face the winner of the Ottawa-Boston series, which the Senators lead 3-2.
Alexei Emelin scored for Montreal and Carey Price finished with 20 saves. The Canadiens, winners of the Atlantic Division after missing the playoffs last year, were bounced from the postseason by the Rangers for the second time in four years. In 2014, it was in the conference finals.
After being outplayed for most of the first period, the Rangers came out more aggressive in the second and outshot the Canadiens 12-8.
Montreal's Jordie Benn was sent off for holding 1:30 into the second and the Rangers took advantage with their first power-play goal in the series. Zuccarello got a pass from Mika Zibanejad, who had the overtime winner in Game 5 on Thursday night, and sent it past Price from the right circle at 2:26. That fired up the Madison Square Garden crowd that was raucous during the national anthems but had been silenced by the Rangers' lackluster play in the first period.
Zuccarello put the Rangers ahead with his second of the game and third of the postseason with 6:29 left in the middle period. He got a pass from Kevin Hayes in front and, with Benn standing in front of him, beat Price from the right side to send the home crowd into a frenzy.
The Canadiens pressed for the tying goal in the third, pulling Price for an extra skater with about 1 1/2 minutes to go, but Lundqvist stopped all of their eight shots in the period.
Stepan added an empty-netter with 17.8 seconds remaining.
Montreal finished 0 for 3 on the power play, while New York converted its lone chance.
Looking to avoid elimination, the Canadiens came out aggressive in the first period. Montreal outshot New York 11-6, though half of the Rangers' shots came in the last 1:15 of the period.
Alexander Radulov tussled with Rangers captain Ryan McDonagh in front of the Canadiens goal about 5 minutes in. As that cleared up, Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty and New York rookie Jimmy Vesey dropped gloves and exchanged punches. The latter duo each received seven minutes of penalties.
Emelin, who returned to the lineup in Game 5 after missing the first four games, got the Canadiens on the scoreboard at 6:19 with his first career postseason goal. He beat Lundqvist with a wrist shot from the top of the right circle. Radulov got an assist on the play for his seventh point of the series.