MONTREAL _ This playoff race is for real now. No doubt it was a huge factor in the Rangers and Chris Kreider making a last-minute deal to keep the power forward in the Blueshirt.
"I think we've got a great opportunity," Kreider said at Thursday's morning skate, before the Rangers took on the Canadiens at Bell Centre. "We continue to win games, we can potentially punch a ticket to the dance. We talked about it going to the Islanders game (Tuesday), we talked about it this morning, how, regardless of who we're playing, and where we're playing, every game is going to be huge for us down the stretch."
The Rangers won another one in dramatic fashion Thursday, scoring four late goals to rally from a two-goal deficit and beat Montreal, 5-2, earning their ninth straight win on the road to extend a club record.
It was their season-high fifth straight win, and their ninth win in the last 10 games. The victory pulled the Rangers (35-24-4) within two points of the idle Columbus Blue Jackets for the second wild-card spot. It was also the second comeback win the Rangers have put up against the Canadiens this season at Bell Centre.
Trailing 2-1 entering the third period, the Rangers evened the score on Mika Zibanejad's 30th goal, at 11:06, and took the lead on Adam Fox's seventh goal, a long shot through a screen that somehow got by Montreal goalie Carey Price at 12:21. After Montreal's Brendan Gallagher was called for interference against Ryan Lindgren (two assists), Ryan Strome tipped in Tony DeAngelo's shot for a power-play goal at 15:23. It was Strome's 17th goal. Strome added an empty-net goal with 1:33 remaining.
It was in this building, on Nov. 23, when the Rangers battled back from 4-0 down to win, 6-5, that coach David Quinn thought the Rangers began to truly believe in themselves, and their playoff push truly began.
"I thought that was the night we really turned the corner on becoming a team," Quinn said. "And that belief comes from playing together and going through some adversity together. And that situation was as adverse a situation as you get."
Thursday's situation was less adverse, definitely, but the Rangers did fall behind early, on a first-period goal by Max Domi, where he fired a pass to Tomas Tatar that hit the skate of Fox and deflected in at 3:12. Alexandar Georgiev, getting his second straight start with Igor Shesterkin out for the next couple weeks with a broken rib suffered in a car accident Sunday, was tough the rest of the way, making 12 saves in the period to keep the score 1-0.
Montreal made it 2-0 late in the second period when Tatar scored on a breakaway at 17:01. Quinn put top-line center Zibanejad out with Artemi Panarin (two assists) and Jesper Fast, perhaps in an attempt to stir things up, but the Canadiens won the puck deep in their own end and broke out quickly. Tatar broke free from Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba and Gallagher sprung him for the breakaway. Tatar beat Georgiev (32 saves) with a stop-and-start move for his 22nd goal.
But the Rangers got one back on Phillip DiGiuseppe's first goal as a Ranger. Fox did most of the work on the play, driving the puck up the left side all the way to the end line, and then turning and sending a pass back to DiGiuseppe, who one-timed a shot into the top corner on the glove side of Price at 18:34.
The Rangers play Friday in Philadelphia in the first of a home-and-home against their division rival.
