Weber scores 2 to sink Rangers
MONTREAL — Two days after bemoaning their inability to win games away from home this season, the Rangers played another poor road game and lost 5-2 Saturday night to the Canadiens and were swept on their two-game trip to Canada.
Canadiens captain Shea Weber, playing his second game after missing the first 24 of the season because of a knee injury, scored his first two goals of the season, and Artturi Lehkonen added two goals as the Canadiens handed the Rangers their eighth regulation loss — and 10th loss overall — in 13 road games this season (3-8-2). The Blueshirts, who return to Madison Square Garden on Sunday against the high-flying Winnipeg Jets on Vic Hadfield Night, are 13-12-2 overall.
After the 3-0 loss in Ottawa on Thursday, several Rangers talked about how poorly the team has played on the road this season, and forward Chris Kreider said the team does not trust and rely enough on the structure of play coach David Quinn and his staff had put in place.
“You know, you’re not going to have your A game every night, but the things you need to rely on are the structure and the process of having success,” Quinn said. “I think we’ve gotten a little bit away from that over the last two road games (the 3-0 loss to Ottawa and a 4-0 loss to Philadelphia the day after Thanksgiving), in particular.”
The Rangers certainly did not have their A game in this one. As in Ottawa, they fell behind early, when Weber’s left point one-timer through traffic eluded Alexandar Georgiev (36 saves) for his first goal of the season at 3:53.
But after the Canadiens dominated the first half of the period, the Rangers, energized by some good work by their third and fourth lines, began to take control in the second half of the period, and they looked to be in good position heading into intermission — until defenseman Brady Skjei made a costly mistake that allowed Montreal to go up 2-0.