Rangers storm back from four goals down, beat Habs
MONTREAL — The Montreal Canadiens blew a four-goal lead and the Rangers stormed all the way back to win 6-5 on Saturday night. Montreal led 4-0 early in the second period and 5-3 in the third.
“You can't really create more adversity for yourself than being down 4-0 in Montreal,” said Rangers coach David Quinn. “We don't do anything halfhearted, I'll tell you that. When we stink, we stink. And when we're good, and when we fight through adversity, well, we fight through adversity.
“We just never stopped. I couldn't be prouder of these guys the way they competed from the drop of the puck to the horn blowing at the end.“
Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba scored the winner with a shot from the point that went off Jeff Petry and in with 7:50 left in the game.
“In this league, when you have a team down like that, you gotta, I don't want to say it, but step on their throats,“said Montreal's Max Domi, who scored twice in the first period. “That's the analogy we use. Put them out of it completely. And we weren't able to do that tonight.
“That can't happen. We know that within our locker room.”
The Rangers (10-9-2) put three unanswered goals past Carey Price in the third period to complete the improbable comeback as Montreal (11-7-5) extended its season-long slump to four games.
“We had a huge lead and we let that go, there aren't too many positives in that,” said Montreal winger Nick Suzuki, who had two assists. “It's just unacceptable for all of us.”
Artemi Panarin scored at 5:51 of the third on a no-look backhand pass from Chris Kreider before Brendan Lemieux tied the game at 5-5 with a shorthanded goal at 8:40 on a 2-on-1. It was his second goal of the game.
“We have to tighten up defensively,” Montreal coach Claude Julien said. “We're not tough enough, we're not tracking pucks. Our back-check was not good at all tonight. We played against a hungry team, even though they played last night.”
Rangers backup goalie Alexander Georgiev was shaky in the first period, but he stopped 38 of 43 shots for his fifth win of the year.
Domi and Artturi Lehkonen each scored twice and Canadiens captain Shea Weber added another. Price stopped 28 of 34 shots in defeat.
The well-rested Canadiens were cruising with a 4-0 lead after 23 minutes against a Rangers team that lost 4-1 in Ottawa on Friday.
Domi snapped a nine-game goalless drought 2:03 into the game from the edge of the crease.
Montreal went up 2-0 exactly halfway through the first period when Lehkonen fired a shot past the far post on Georgiev while using Trouba as a screen.
Domi made it 3-0 with his second goal on a quick release that caught Georgiev off-guard with 34 seconds left in the period.
Rangers backup goalie got a piece of Weber's slap shot at 2:51 of the second, but the puck still trickled in behind him.
Louis Domingue got a fresh start with the Devils, and the goaltender took full advantage.
Domingue made 19 saves in his first start for New Jersey as the Devils beat Detroit 5-1, sending the Red Wings to a fifth straight loss (0-3-2) on Saturday night in Newark.
Will Butcher scored the goahead goal in the third period, Blake Coleman added two goals and Kyle Palmieri and Taylor Hall also scored as the Devils ended a two-game skid.
The goals helped roll out the welcome mat for Domingue, and he did the rest.
Domingue joined the Devils in a Nov. 1 trade from the Lightning. He last started a game on March 21, winning 6-3 with Tampa Bay.
Despite a record of 21-5-0 last year, Domingue became expendable when Tampa signed goalie Curtis McElhinney over the summer.
Domingue's odyssey since then included a stint in the minor leagues.
“I was excited,” Domingue said. “It's a long time coming for me. I feel like I should have started the year in the NHL, but things went the way they did and now I'm here. I'm going to take it a day at a time and try and stay in the league.”
Domingue's first appearance for the club was Friday night, when he stopped all five shots in relief of Mackenzie Blackwood in a 4-1 loss at Pittsburgh.
Domingue immediately won over the Prudential Center crowd on Saturday, squeezing the pads together to stop the first shot he faced, a drive from the right wing off the stick of Anthony Mantha.
“It got the nerves out of the way,” Domingue said. “I've played a hundred-and-some games you still get the nerves sometimes. Especially when you play in front of a new team. You always want to do well. That's my game plan. Nothing through me. Nothing under me. If you do that, you usually have a pretty good night.”