After four goals in the third period and a 5-2 win over Montreal, words cannot describe this team

The game

The first period was a tightly played, conservative period. The Rangers were gifted a power play just 13 seconds into the game when Jeff Petry put the puck into the stands, but it was too early.  The Blueshirts were skating in mud the first five minutes of the game and wasted the man advantage.

Both teams had decent scoring opportunities, but it was Montreal that scored a goal that deflected off Adam Fox’s skate.  Max Domi took the shot that was going wide, but hit Fox’s skate and bounced into the Rangers’ net. it was a lucky goal, though the Habs definitely had the better of the play.

Georgiev was at his best, stopping a wide open Paul Byron.

The Canadiens ended up outshooting the Rangers 13-9 and had more shot attempts 22-12, helped by the two penalties taken by the Rangers.

The second period was similar to the first period with both teams exchanging chances.  Georgiev made on of the best saves of the year after giving the puck away , stopping a point blank shot by Phillip Danault.

Not only that, but the old bugaboo reared it’s ugly head when the Rangers were called for a two many men on the ice penalty. less than a minute later.   They killed that penalty but just three minutes later Tomas Tatar broke in on a two on one and made a spectacular move to beat Georgiev. It’s worth looking at this goal, it was a beauty.

Less than a minute later, Georgiev stoned Dale Wiese on a breakaway and right after the Rangers finally broke through and it was depth scoring that came through.

The play was made by an Adam Fox rush, but Phil Di Giuseppe scored his first goal since November 2018 by crashing the net and beating two Canadien players  to score.

That was an incredibly important goal coming just a minute and a half after Tatar’s breakaway and with less than two minutes left in the period.  Going into the third period down a goal instead of two was huge.

The third period, the Rangers were a different team with 13 shot attempts in the first 11 minutes, helped by a tripping penalty to Brendan Gallagher.  Carey Price stood tall and with just under nine minutes left in the game, the Rangers were able to tie the score on a goal by, who else, Mika Zibanejad.

It was a make-shift line with Julien Gauthier playing with Zibanejad and Panarin and he got his first assist as a Rangers with a drop pass to Panarin who fed Zibanejad for the wrist shot that eluded Price.

74 seconds later, Adam Fox scored to put the Blueshirts ahead.

It came during a dominant shift in the Canadiens’ zone and right after Price stopped a point blank shot by Ryan Strome.  Fox fired a wrist shot from the faceoff circle that got through, helped by a screen by Chris Kreider.

From that point on, the Rangers just poured it on. Three minutes later, Ryan Strome scored a power play goal after an interference penalty by Brendan Gallagher.

Strome deflected a shot from the blueline by Anthony DeAngelo and the Ranger had a two goal lead with less than five minutes left in the game.

That goal took the heart out of the Canadiens who have made a habit of blowing third period leads.  With the goalie pulled, Ryan Strome cleared the puck and it looked like it was going to be a Artemi Panarin empty netter, but the puck got past him and went all the way down the ice for the final blow.

It was a stirring victory and another example of the never say die attitude that this eam has discovered over the last month.   Bring on the Flyers!