Rangers rally in third, defeat Canadiens for ninth road victory in row

MONTREAL -- Mika Zibanejad scored in his sixth straight game, and the New York Rangers scored four goals in the third period for their ninth straight road win, 5-2 against the Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Thursday.

Ryan Strome had two goals and an assist, and Alexandar Georgiev made 32 saves for New York (35-24-4), which has won a season-high five straight and nine of 10.
WATCH: [All Rangers vs. Canadiens highlights]
The Rangers are two points behind the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference.
"We want to make the playoffs, but at the same time I think we can't go out there and control what other teams do," Strome said. "So we've got to take care of business like we've been doing. I think we've come with a pretty good mindset. We're focused, but we're also staying pretty light in here as a group. And we just want to make this thing interesting, we want to play meaningful games and we're making these games count and we're doing a good job.
"Teams are starting to see us catching them in the standings a little bit and we're going to play all the teams we've got to catch up to, so that's the important thing."

Tomas Tatar had a goal and an assist, and Carey Price made 30 saves in his 11th straight start for Montreal (29-28-9), which is 2-5-2 in the past nine games.
"I don't know what else to say, we can't blow it like that," Tatar said. "We had 40 great minutes and we were really happy about our hockey game, and then we just dropped it. And I don't think they played any better. We were worried to close the game, but something's got to change. We've got to look at ourselves in the mirror and we can't let it happen."
Montreal is nine points behind Columbus, and nine behind the Toronto Maple Leafs for third place in the Atlantic Division.
Zibanejad equaled his NHL career high he set last season with his 30th goal to tie it 2-2 at 11:06 of the third period. Rangers coach David Quinn changed his lines in the second, putting Artemi Panarin with Zibanejad.
"He does such a good job with kind of keeping the puck and keeping the defensemen guessing there and creates enough room for me to get away that shot," Zibanejad said of Panarin. "He's incredible with the puck and his hockey IQ is through the roof, obviously, and you've seen that throughout the whole season. It was an unbelievable play and I'm lucky that it went in and tied the game, and I thought we changed it after that."
Adam Fox made it 3-2 at 12:21. Strome extended the lead to 4-2 at 15:23 on a power play and scored into an empty net at 18:27 for the 5-2 final.
"I thought we played a very good 40 minutes, then just shelled up in the third, and again that didn't work for us," Price said.
Max Domi put Montreal up 1-0 when his pass went in off Fox's left skate at 3:12 of the first period. Tatar scored on a breakaway at 17:01 of the second to make it 2-0.

Phillip Di Giuseppe got the Rangers within 2-1 at 18:34 with his first NHL goal since Nov. 8, 2018 for the Carolina Hurricanes.
"That first goal was huge," Quinn said. "Getting that goal before the end of the [second], [heck] of a play by Fox and Di Giuseppe, who had a really good night, goes to the net and we get a goal, so I think that goal really kind of ignited us for the third period. And I give a lot of guys who were having tough nights a lot of credit because they turned it on in the third."

They said it

"I thought we got frustrated because we weren't getting any chances and weren't really doing much offensively. But there's a reason for that. When you cheat and you play against a team that can play honest hockey you're not going to get chances, and I thought we really approached the third period a little bit differently and just a lot of good hockey in the third period." -- Rangers coach David Quinn
"We're capable of playing 40 minutes, we're not able to play 60. We're encouraging our players to play 60 minutes, we tell them to play on their toes in the third, not on their heels, try to play the third like the first two periods. But it's not happening. At a certain point you look at the goals that we're allowing, we're on our heels, and you can't play for the players. At a certain point they make the decision to take charge and stop talking about a lack of confidence and start playing the right way. There's nothing else I can say because we're trying to ask the players to play 60 minutes the same way." -- Canadiens coach Claude Julien

Need to know

The Rangers' road winning streak is three fewer than the longest in NHL history. The Detroit Red Wings (March 1-April 15, 2006) and Minnesota Wild (Feb. 18-April 9, 2015) each won 12 straight road games. … Zibanejad's goal streak is tied for the longest in the NHL this season (Max Domi, Canadiens; Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks; Sebastian Aho, Carolina Hurricanes). It is the first six-game goal streak by a Rangers player since Jaromir Jagr scored nine goals during a six-game streak from Feb. 2-March 2, 2006. … Canadiens forward Jonathan Drouin did not play because of an ankle injury. He had no points while playing eight of nine games since missing the previous 37 recovering from wrist surgery.

What's next

Rangers:At the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN, TVAS, NBCSP, MSG, NHL.TV)
Canadiens:Host the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; CITY, SNE, TVAS, FS-CR, NHL.TV)