Weber scores twice for Canadiens in win against Rangers

MONTREAL -- Shea Weber and Artturi Lehkonen each scored twice, and the Montreal Canadiens ended a five-game losing streak with a 5-2 win against the New York Rangers at Bell Centre on Saturday.

Tomas Tatar had a goal and an assist, and Carey Price made 20 saves for Montreal (12-9-5), which was 0-3-2 in its previous five games.
"Obviously, Weber] was a big presence out there, and a lot of guys played really solid," Price said. "We kind of got back to what we were doing at the start of the season."
***[WATCH: [All Rangers vs. Canadiens highlights]*
Jimmy Vesey had a goal and an assist, and Ryan Strome scored for New York (13-12-2), which has lost four of its past five games (1-4-0). Alexandar Georgiev made 36 saves.
The Rangers have been outscored 19-7 in their past four road games (0-4-0).
Weber, who played his first game since Dec. 16, 2017 on Tuesday, gave the Canadiens a 1-0 lead at 3:53 of the first period. He scored on a one-timer from the left point off a pass from Jonathan Drouin.

Weber made it 2-0 at 19:52 on a delayed penalty. After Tatar was knocked to the ice by Rangers defenseman Brady Skjei, he sent a no-look pass to Weber, who scored on a wrist shot from the slot.
"That was a crusher," New York coach David Quinn said. "I'm not going to lie to you, that was a crusher."
Weber said, "[Tatar] made a good play. We spent at least 30 seconds in our own end battling and he kept fighting up the wall there. And to be honest with you, I wasn't even sure if we were still playing. It seemed like everything kind of stopped for a second and I decided to just shoot it and I guess it went in."
It was Weber's 18th multigoal game in the NHL, his first since Dec. 5, 2017.
"Yeah, that hurts," Rangers forward Chris Kreider said. "I thought we played a pretty strong 20 minutes, but that's hockey sometimes, right? I thought we were tilting the ice pretty good and we come away down two. It's gone the other way for us a couple of times, too. We've been outplayed and we've been able to pot our chances here and there. So it's hard because then I think we get a little overanxious."
Lehkonen extended the lead to 3-0 at 2:04 of the second period, scoring short side from the left circle on a 2-on-1. He made it 4-0 at 5:29.

Vesey made it 4-1 at 8:10, and Strome cut it to 4-2 at 14:11 with a power-play goal.
"I definitely like the way that we fought back, and giving up that sort of a lead on the road is really tough to come back," Rangers defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk said.
Tatar made it 5-2 at 10:28 of the third period, getting a rebound in the slot on the power play.

They said it

"To give that goal up in the fashion that we did really was a tough pill to swallow and tough to overcome. You know we're not in a great mindset right now, and to come in the second period down 2-0, playing the way we did the last seven or eight minutes and give up a goal like that, really set us back." -- Rangers coach David Quinn on Shea Weber's second goal
"The biggest thing is winning. Obviously, you help out by scoring goals or stopping goals, whichever way it is. Coming in here after getting two points is definitely the part I missed the most." -- Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber

Need to know

Rangers forward Mika Zibanejad had two assists. He has seven points (three goals, four assists) in his past five games against Montreal. … Canadiens forward Paul Byron had an assist on Lehkonen's first goal. It was his first game back after missing the previous 14 because of a lower-body injury.

What's next

Rangers:Host the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday (6 p.m. ET; MSG, TSN3, NHL.TV)
Canadiens:Host the San Jose Sharks on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; SN, SN1, RDS, NBCSCA, NHL.TV)