Rangers win Game 5 in overtime, take series lead

MONTREAL-- Mika Zibanejad scored 14:22 into overtime to give the New York Rangers a 3-2 win against the Montreal Canadiens in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Bell Centre on Thursday.
Zibanejad shot past Carey Price on a deflected pass from the left side by Chris Kreider.
The Rangers lead the best-of-7 series 3-2. Game 6 is at New York on Saturday.
"We had a lot of good chances and I think it was the opposite way around last time we were here in overtime (in a 4-3 loss in Game 2), they had some momentum coming in and they were pretty much all over us and we weren't making any plays," Zibanejad said. "And I think it was the other way around today. It felt like it was our turn and good to get rewarded."

\[WATCH: All Rangers vs. Canadiens highlights | RELATED: Complete New York vs. Montreal series coverage\]
New York outshot Montreal 10-3 in overtime.
"I think there's stuff that we didn't do a few nights ago in overtime that we harped on as a group and I thought we did a better job," Kreider said.
Artturi Lehkonen and Brendan Gallagher scored in the first period for Montreal, which led 1-0 and 2-1. Price made 33 saves.
"We would have liked to have a better overtime for sure," Gallagher said. "I think we just weren't able to get any sustained pressure."

Jesper Fast scored a shorthanded goal, and Brady Skjei scored for the Rangers. Henrik Lundqvist made 34 saves.
"There were opportunities to close out the game and [Lundqvist] made some big saves," Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty said. "They got a bounce on that goal but nothing we can do about it now. We have an opportunity now to show what we have in this room. We've come back a lot this year and hopefully we can do it in this series as well."

Lehkonen gave Montreal a 1-0 lead with his second goal of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on a wraparound at 12:07 of the first period. Fast tied it 1-1 at 15:56 after Zibanejad intercepted Alex Galchenyuk's pass in the Rangers zone. Zibanejad raced down the left side and cut toward the slot after crossing the blue line before passing ahead to Fast, who shot past Price for his second goal of the series.
Gallagher restored Montreal's lead 24 seconds later with a power-play goal at 16:20 to make it 2-1. Skjei scored at 18:28 of the second period to tie it 2-2.

Goal of the game

Rick Nash received a pass from Jimmy Vesey and took a shot from close that Price saved, but Skjei was able to score on the rebound.

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Save of the game

Lundqvist made a right-pad save on Pacioretty's shot on a breakaway at 12:47 of the third period.

Highlight of the game

Kreider was trying to put a puck on net when his shot deflected off Montreal defenseman Alexei Emelin's stick and slid across the slot to Zibanejad for the game-winning goal.
"I didn't expect the puck to come like that before me and I think the [Emelin] didn't see it either," Zibanejad said. "I was able to just get a stick on it. It was just awesome."

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Unsung performance of the game

Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh had three blocked shots and six hits in 30:41 of ice time.

They said it

"You understand the importance of getting this win, so it's a great feeling, it's a rush. When it comes to sports, yeah, that's what you're looking for, that rush you feel if you do this together. And now we enjoy this tonight and then we go home and prepare for our best game of the series, that's what we need." -- Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist
"We're going into a situation where we're going to learn a lot about our group. We're going to learn what type of character we have. I think if we don't have character, this is the time where you're going to doubt yourself. If you have character, this is the time where the belief is going to come out of your group, and we'll see what we have. But I'm pretty confident in the guys we have in here that we're going to be able to just worry about Game 6. Now we've got to find a way to win one and the rest will take care of itself." -- Canadiens right wing Brendan Gallagher

Need to know

It was the Rangers' first overtime win in the Stanley Cup Playoffs since May 13, 2015, when Derek Stepan scored for a 2-1 win against the Washington Capitals in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Second Round. ... The Rangers went 0-for-2 on the power play; they are 0-for-14 in the series.

What's next

Game 6 of Eastern Conference First Round at Madison Square Garden on Saturday (8 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, TVA Sports)