Panarin gets 4 points to help Rangers rally past Canadiens

MONTREAL -- Artemi Panarin had a goal and three assists, and the New York Rangers rallied with three goals in the third period to defeat the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 at Bell Centre on Saturday.

J.T. Miller, Matthew Robertson and Panarin scored in the third for New York (3-3-1), which was 0-2-1 in its previous three games. Mika Zibanejad had a goal and an assist, Adam Fox had two assists, and Jonathan Quick made 21 saves.

The Rangers scored four consecutive goals after falling behind 2-0 early in the first period.

“I thought it was a real gutsy effort by the guys,” New York coach Mike Sullivan said. “You go through some of the early adversity that we’ve gone through here, you know, I said to them after the game, ‘That game could have gone south fast.’ We go down two early like that, given the circumstances that we’ve gone through the last week or so, I just give the guys a lot of credit.”

The Rangers have scored 14 goals in their three wins and one goal in their four losses, which have included three shutouts.

“They were off to a really good start,” New York forward Alexis Lafreniere said. “We had to settle down, and they’ve got some really good young players, really skilled, so we were trying to keep them in front of us and defend hard.”

Juraj Slafkovsky, Nick Suzuki and Noah Dobson scored, and Sam Montembeault made 18 saves for Montreal (4-2-0), which had won four straight.

“Especially in the first, I thought we had a lot of control and anytime you go into the third with the lead you should come out with the win,” Canadiens forward Jake Evans said. “Just some sloppier play in the D-zone, and that’s something we’ve got to learn [from] and fix quickly.”

The Canadiens were missing three regulars; defenseman Kaiden Guhle (lower body) is out 4-6 weeks, and forwards Kirby Dach and Patrik Laine are day to day, each with a lower-body injury.

Miller tied it 2-2 at 34 seconds of the third. Fox’s wrist shot from the point deflected off Miller in front.

Robertson, playing his sixth NHL game, gave New York a 3-2 lead at 4:11 with his first career point. He scored on a slap shot from the point that went past Montembeault’s glove.

“As the game went on I think we settled down,” Robertson said. “We started getting some pucks going north, and I think we just built off of that and had a couple of bounces go in and just kind of rolled off that.”

Panarin pushed it to 4-2 at 5:51 with a wrist shot from the right face-off circle off a pass from Zibanejad on the rush. It was his first goal of the season.

Dobson drew Montreal within 4-3 at 8:26 when he moved in from the right point and scored on a low wrist shot for his first goal with the Canadiens since being traded from the New York Islanders on June 27.

“I think the effort was there. I think the execution wasn’t as good, though,” Montreal defenseman Mike Matheson said. “In the second period we couldn’t generate a whole lot, there were a couple of shifts here and there, but in the third we got some chances but weren’t able to bury them. And they did the opposite, they got chances and buried them.”

Slafkovsky made it 1-0 at 1:33 of the first period when he shot past Quick stick side from the left circle. He finished off Caufield’s pass on a 2-on-1 after Robertson turned the puck over inside the Montreal zone.

Suzuki increased the lead to 2-0 with a power-play goal at 3:42. He one-timed a cross-ice pass from Ivan Demidov past New York defenseman Braden Schneider into an open left side of the net for his first goal of the season.

Zibanejad cut it to 2-1 at 11:56 on the man-advantage, scoring stick side on a one-timer from the top of the left circle.

“It could have been way worse than 2-1 after the first, so I’m happy we responded the way we did,” Zibanejad said.

NOTES: Caufield and Suzuki each extended his point streak to five games. Caufield has eight points (five goals, three assists) during his streak, as does Suzuki (one goal, seven assists). … The Rangers are 7-0-2 in their past nine games in Montreal; their longest active road point streak against one opponent is also their second-longest ever against the Canadiens (six wins and five ties in 11 games from March 19, 1938 to Jan. 4, 1941). … Panarin has had at least one point in 13 consecutive games against Montreal dating to Feb. 27, 2020, tying Rod Gilbert (twice; against the Detroit Red Wings from 1973-74 to 1976-77, and against the Oakland Seals from 1967-68 to 1969-70) and Brian Leetch (against the Pittsburgh Penguins from 1990-91 to 1992-93) for the second-longest streak against a single opponent in New York history. Andy Bathgate had points in 22 straight against the Boston Bruins from 1960-61 to 1962-63. … Rangers forward Conor Sheary had an assist in his 600th NHL game. … Linesman Scott Cherrey had to leave the game for medical attention after he was struck in the face by the puck at 9:10 of the third. He did not return.