Canadiens defeat Rangers in shootout after blowing 3-goal lead

MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens recovered from blowing a three-goal lead in a 4-3 shootout win against the New York Rangers at Bell Centre on Saturday.

Sam Montembeault made 45 saves for Montreal (17-17-5), which was coming off a 6-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Thursday.

“Every night here is special, but there’s some nights that stand out a little bit more,” Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher said. “A Saturday night when the Rangers are in town, it was a good hockey game. There were chances both ways. It was physical, and ‘Monty’ really stepped up and made some massive saves.”

Montembeault stopped all three shots he faced in the shootout, including reaching back to swipe away the puck after Mika Zibanejad tried to pull off a Forsberg move in the second round.

“It was the same move he used against me last year and he scored,” Montembeault said. “It was a nice save and I was really happy about that.”

Artemi Panarin and Vincent Trocheck each had a goal and an assist, and Jonathan Quick made 27 saves for New York (26-10-2), which has lost three of five (2-2-1).

“We showed good character coming back from three, then in the shootout it’s just anyone can win,” Trocheck said.

Gallagher put Montreal ahead 1-0 at 11:37 of the first period, scoring glove side with a wrist shot after Trocheck couldn't clear the puck up the boards.

“We didn’t get the puck out, and then I thought I could make a read,” Trocheck said.

Sean Monahan made it 2-0 at 1:09 of the second period. He scored with a wrist shot from the slot that deflected off Rangers defenseman Ryan Lindgren and fluttered past Quick.

Joel Armia pushed it to 3-0 at 2:39. He skated in from the left point and received a pass from Mitchell Stephens before scoring five-hole from the hash marks.

Trocheck got the Rangers to within 3-1 at 10:28 with a redirection of Erik Gustafsson’s shot from the right point.

“That was really important, and then we follow it up with another really big goal after that,” New York coach Peter Laviolette said. “I thought from that point on we really pressed the entire game, and it was good. It was tighter in the first period. They came out, they probably weren’t happy with the game they played before, and so with that usually comes some meetings and some directness to your game.”

Panarin cut it to 3-2 at 14:29 of the second with his 25th goal of the season. Trocheck pushed the puck forward to win a face-off against Stephens and passed quickly to Panarin, who beat Montembeault five-hole with a one-timer.

“That was my second face-off against him in like seven seconds,” Trocheck said. “The first one I tried to win it back hard, broke my stick. Sometimes a little mental warfare in the dot is just trying to go forward because I just try to go backwards.”

Adam Fox tied it 3-3 at 9:30 of the third period with a one-timer from the point through traffic for his first goal in 20 games.

“We battled back hard and we’d love to get two points, but we worked for that point,” Fox said.

NOTES: Gallagher’s goal was his first since Nov. 11. He had four assists in his previous 24 games. ... Panarin has 12 points (eight goals, four assists) during a seven-game point streak. ... Trocheck has nine points (two goals, seven assists) in his past four games. … Rangers forward Chris Kreider had his NHL career-long point streak end at eight games.