Canadiens rally for win against Rangers

MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens scored three goals 1:02 apart in the third period for a 5-4 win against the New York Rangers at Bell Centre on Saturday.
Alexei Emelin scored at 10:53 to tie it 3-3. Max Pacioretty gave Montreal its first lead at 4-3 with his 20th goal at 11:29, and Paul Byron scored 26 seconds later to make it 5-3.
"The building exploded," Pacioretty said. "It felt like a little bit of a playoff game and it was just a lot of fun and a lot of great energy from the group."

WATCH: All Rangers vs. Canadiens highlights
Henrik Lundqvist allowed five goals on 22 shots in the second and third periods for New York (28-15-1) after replacing starting goalie Antti Raanta, who left the game with a lower-body injury after making 10 saves in the first.
"I'm just trying hard to be positive right now," said Lundqvist, who allowed four goals on 27 shots in a 4-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Friday. "Obviously the last two games here it's not been bouncing the right way."
Alex Galchenyuk scored his 10th goal in his first game since Dec. 4 and Brian Flynn scored for the Canadiens (27-11-6). Carey Price made 29 saves after a 7-1 loss at the Minnesota Wild on Thursday.
"The game in Minnesota, it just didn't matter what we did, everything was just going into the net," Byron said. "But I thought everyone stuck together. Everyone was still playing hard, you know, credit to Carey for staying in there and battling with us. It means a lot to our team and I thought our team answered really well tonight."

Brandon Pirri scored a power-play goal in the first for the Rangers, who went 0-for-6 on the power play against Toronto. Rick Nash scored his 14th goal in his second game after missing eight because of a groin injury.
J.T. Miller scored a shorthanded goal at 11:07 of the second period to give the Rangers their third one-goal lead of the game at 3-2. Derek Stepan's goal at 14:53 of the third drew New York within 5-4.
"I thought we did a lot of good things for 57 minutes of hockey tonight," Stepan said. "We had a three-minute stretch where it cost us the game."
New York coach Alain Vigneault used his challenge to deny Montreal a goal at 4:00 of the first period. The review determined that Canadiens forward Andrew Shaw interfered with Raanta before Phillip Danault shot the puck into the net.
Pirri put the Rangers up 1-0 at 12:24, four seconds after Shaw was called for interference.
Galchenyuk deflected defenseman Mark Barberio's shot, the first Lundqvist faced, to tie it 1-1 at 3:08 of the second.
Nash restored New York's lead to 2-1 when he scored on a rebound at 6:20 after Kevin Hayes drove the net. Hayes' foot hooked onto Price's right pad and dragged the Montreal goalie farther out of his net. Canadiens coach Michel Therrien challenged, but the review determined that Hayes' contact with Price was incidental.
"I disagree with the call," Price said. "That's all I've got to really say about it."

Goal of the game

Galchenyuk was left alone in front of Lundqvist when he deflected Barberio's rising shot down past the Rangers goalie.

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Save of the game

Price made a critical save on Michael Grabner in the third period after Stepan's goal drew New York within one.

Highlight of the game

Hayes made a rush through the goalmouth and nearly scored on a Peter Forsberg-style deke. Price made the save but his momentum carried him left of the post, leaving Nash to shoot the puck into a wide open net.

Unsung moment of the game

Galchenyuk got his stick on the puck to deflect it away from Grabner, who had a shot at an open net in the second period.

They said it

"We did a majority of good things and we just lapsed for that 62 seconds and we just weren't able to recover. We find a way to get it back into one, and give them credit, they did a good job of defending at the end of the game." -- Rangers center Derek Stepan

"There was not really a sense of panic going into the third period when we know our game's decent but we know that everyone's on board and everyone's going to do what it takes to win the game, and I think we deserve the bounces we got in the third." -- Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty

Need to know

Therrien coached his 800th NHL regular-season game. ... Shaw had 22 penalty minutes in the first period, including majors for interference, fighting and a game misconduct at 16:56 after missing the previous 14 games because of a concussion.

What's next

Rangers: Host the Dallas Stars on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; SN, SN1, TVA Sports, MSG, FS-SW+, NHL.TV)
Canadiens: At the Detroit Red Wings on Monday (3 p.m. ET; FS-D, SNE, RDS, NHL.TV)