Canadiens down the Rangers 4-1

Carey Price and the Montreal Canadiens showed off their resurgent form under coach Claude Julien with a big Eastern Conference win.

Price made 26 saves and the Canadiens extended their winning streak to five games with a 4-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Saturday night.

Shea Weber, Artturi Lehkonen, Andrew Shaw and Jordie Benn scored for the Canadiens, who are in first place in the Atlantic Division.

Max Pacioretty and Alex Galchenyuk each had two assists for Montreal, which has won six of seven. That streak started with a shootout win over the Rangers on Feb. 21 at Madison Square Garden. That was Montreal’s first win under Julien, who took over after Michel Therrien was fired.

“It’s a matter of better execution and managing the puck a little bit better and creating a little bit more offence,” Julien said. “I thought we moved the puck fairly well tonight.”

The Canadiens swept all three meetings with the Rangers this season, and the teams could meet in the first round of the playoffs next month.

“We get excited playing here at MSG,” Galchenyuk said. “They’re a very strong team and there’s been a lot of talk about meeting in the first round. We wanted to come in here and play a strong game, and we did.”

Chris Kreider scored and Henrik Lundqvist made 31 saves for the Rangers, who have lost three of their past four overall and four in a row at home.

“Right now we’ve got quite a few guys that are fighting it; there’s no doubt,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said.

“A couple of guys’ games are not very good, but that’s still not a reason to execute to the level that we did tonight.”

With the Rangers trailing 3-0, Lundqvist made two strong saves on Pacioretty early in the third period before the Rangers got on the board.