Miller scores in OT, Rangers edge Canadiens for comeback win

NEW YORK -- J.T. Miller scored twice, including at 2:56 of overtime, and the New York Rangers rallied for a 5-4 win against the Montreal Canadiens at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

The Rangers captain one-timed a pass from Mika Zibanejad past Montreal goalie Jacob Fowler for a power-play goal.

Miller said the winning play didn’t go exactly as the Rangers planned it.

“I was supposed to be in front of the net. Sometimes those things evolve like that and I had my mind made up that I wanted to get a shot off,” Miller said. “I passed up a couple shots lately that I feel I should have shot. Sometimes they go in. It's nice to see one go in."

The two goals were the second and third for Miller on home ice. His only other goal at home came on Nov. 29 against the Lightning. He has scored six on the road.

“I’m thrilled for him,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. “I know what it means for this team to have success and he takes a lot of ownership for it.

“I felt he had a really strong game tonight.”

Noah Laba , Artemi Panarin and Will Cuylle scored, Connor Sheary and Matthew Robertson each had two assists, and Igor Shesterkin made 13 saves for the Rangers (16-13-4), who snapped a three-game losing streak.

Zachary Bolduc, Arber Xhekaj, Jake Evans and Josh Anderson scored, Nick Suzuki and Lane Hutson each had two assists and Fowler, in his second career NHL start, made 23 saves for the Canadiens (16-11-4), who have lost three of four.

Miller’s first goal of the game came at 7:58 of the second period, tying the game 4-4. He picked up a loose puck in the slot and slid it through Fowler's pads.

It came 36 seconds after Cuylle cut Montreal’s lead to 4-3.

It was the second hole the Rangers had to climb out of after falling behind 3-0 in the first period.

The win gave the Rangers points in four straight home games (2-0-2), a turnaround from early in the season when they lost their first seven home games.

“I think we've learned a lot so far in this season, 30-plus games. It's not great to go 0-and-whatever at home to start the season, but I think you can really learn a lot from that,” Miller said. “Even when it's good, you can't let it get too good. Like, we're not going to win every road game and we're not going to lose every single one at home. It's a long season and I think we did a good job of staying mentally tough and in the moment, present and worried about the next shift, and we really turned the tide on them.”

Montreal coach Martin St. Louis said he wants to see more maturity from his team.

"I think we're at another stage. I expect way more from this group and for some reason we're not getting it consistently,” St. Louis said. “The urgency is up and down. In this League, it's too hard. Especially when you put yourself in a good spot in the first period, you've got to keep that urgency level up."

The Canadiens took a 1-0 lead at 12:41 of the first period on their first shot of the game when Bolduc redirected in a pass from Suzuki.

Xhekaj made it 2-0 Montreal at 14:10 when he scored his first goal of the season on a wrist shot from the blue line. The first two goals came on the Canadiens’ first two shots of the game.

Sullivan said the Rangers didn’t get down.

“I think we had the start we were looking for,” Sullivan said. “There were a couple of breakdowns that ended up in the back of our net. I contemplated calling timeout, but we didn’t feel like it was necessary based on the way the group was playing.”

Evans made it 3-0 at 16:18 when he beat Shesterkin with a wrist shot from the left side.

“Any time you get up 3-0 you have to win the game,” Evans said.

But the Rangers cut the Canadiens’ lead to 3 -1 when Laba scored a power-play goal at 18:49 of the first, putting in a loose puck in front of the net.

“We just kept on pushing forward,” Laba said. “We knew we were playing pretty well, and if we were to continue at that, the goals would come.”

The next one would come 19 seconds later, when Panarin made it 3-2 on a penalty shot at 19:08.

Panarin, who beat Fowler to the blocker side, was awarded the penalty shot after being taken down from behind by Noah Dobson on a breakaway. It was his first penalty-shot goal in his NHL career in 784 career NHL games.

“I was panicked to be honest,” Panarin said with a laugh about taking the penalty shot.

Montreal regained a two-goal lead when Anderson’s one-timer from the slot made it 4-2 at 3:17 of the second period.

But Cullye and Miller scored to tie the game before a scoreless third period.

The Rangers got the power play in overtime when Evans went to the box for slashing Panarin at 2:29.

“Taking a penalty in overtime is not the best recipe either,” Evans said.

NOTES: Hutson became the fourth-fastest defenseman (115 games played) in NHL history to have 20 multiassist games, behind Mark Howe (91 games), Chris Chelios (109) and Stefan Persson (109). He passed Henri Richard (19) for the most multiassist games at age 21 or younger in Canadiens history. … Panarin became the first Rangers player to score on a penalty shot against the Canadiens since Camille Henry against Jacques Plante on March 8, 1958. It was the Rangers’ first goal on a penalty shot since Dan Boyle on Dec. 9, 2015, against Ryan Miller and the Vancouver Canucks. … The game marked the second time in the NHL expansion era the Rangers had multiple multigoal comeback wins against Montreal in a single season. They won 4-3 in Montreal on Oct. 18 after trailing 2-0. … It was Shesterkin’s 300th career NHL game. He’s the eighth goalie in Rangers history to hit that milestone.