The Rangers are having a very disappointing season.
And the Montreal Canadiens, meanwhile, were corrected the day before by the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 7-3 loss.
If we combine all of this with the extremely tight standings in the Atlantic Division, we could therefore expect quite a match between the two teams, Sunday night.
Before the game, the CH recalled Owen Beck, who took the place of Michael Pezzetta in the lineup, as he has only been allowed a few short appearances per game for the past few weeks.
Following the 7-3 loss, and the fact that it was a second game in 24 hours, Jakub Dobes was therefore getting a second start in 72 hours.
Here’s the lineup that the Tricolore presented for the game:
The CH started the match relatively slowly but still had the upper hand over the Rangers in terms of shots (9-5). However, New York was luckier and, above all, more opportunistic.
First, Alexis Lafrenière opened the scoring by taking advantage of a quirky bounce.
Interestingly, the fans at the Bell Centre are still very resentful towards Chris Kreider and do not hesitate to boo him when he has the puck.
A few minutes after Lafrenière’s goal, Brendan Gallagher brought everyone back to square one with a nice deflection.
Number 11 deftly redirected Christian Dvorak’s shot to score his 11th goal of the season.
Josh Anderson also received an assist on this goal.
However, it took only 46 seconds for the Rangers to regain the lead in the game.
Will Cuylle scored his 12th goal of the season, unassisted.
This goal did not sit well with the Tricolore, who decided to transform into Big Bad Habs.
There was a big brawl near the benches of both teams.
What caught attention was Josh Anderson, who did not spare Braden Schneider.
The latter was cut on the lip during the sequence.
It was therefore with a score of 2-1 in favor of the Rangers that the two teams retreated to the locker room after the first period.
Right at the start of the second period, a troubling scene involving Josh Anderson occurred.
The power forward fell awkwardly while his knee was caught between Arthur Kaliyev’s legs and had to leave for the locker room.
Few expected him to return to the game, even less in the middle of the second period.
And that’s exactly what happened.
In the meantime, a lot happened.
First, the spectators at the game got their money’s worth: Finally, a first fight between Arber Xhekaj and Matt Rempe.
And let’s say that even though Rempe cheated by jumping Xhekaj early, the CH defender gave him a good lesson with his left hand.
Moreover, Christian Dvorak recreated the tie with his 4th goal of the season (and second point of the match).
This time, it was the Tricolore’s turn to benefit from a lucky bounce.
Brendan Gallagher also recorded a second point in the match with the primary assist, while Alex Newhook now has four assists this season.
In this match where teams exchanged goals back and forth, it was now the Rangers’ turn to score.
Mika Zibanejad took advantage of a power play to score his 9th goal of the season.
Adam Fox and Artemi Panarin were credited with assists.
About five minutes later in the match, the captain once again stepped up, showing the way in the best possible manner.
He forced a turnover by stealing the puck from the Rangers’ defender for his 14th goal of the season.
Unfortunately, Chris Kreider had to restore the lead for his team.
It was therefore 4-3 for the Rangers after 40 minutes of play.
Unlike the other two periods, it was rather quiet offensively in the third.
Only one goal was scored and Juraj Slafkovsky leveled the score to send everyone into overtime.
Lane Hutson once again collected an assist, his 35th of the season. It was therefore an eighth consecutive game for Hutson with at least one point.
Caufield also earned an assist on the goal.
Jakub Dobes was outstanding in overtime with several key stops on quality shots.
This set the tone quickly in this extra period, and who else but Patrik Laine to give the victory to the Sainte-Flanelle in this intense match.
That’s already 12 for Laine this season.
The next game for the CH will be Tuesday in Montreal against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Overtime
– Overall, the match was fiercely contested. The two teams exchanged goals back and forth in the game, in addition to generously distributing body checks. There were also many scrums and commotion during stoppages.
– It didn’t take long for Nick Suzuki to find his beautiful smile again, which had to fix his broken tooth against Toronto. And it seems to have paid off since he scored a goal.
