Recap: Fox Leads Rangers to Another Montreal Rally

MONTREAL -- This can't be the script the Rangers bring with them when they go to Montreal, but this is how the story continues to unfold. They staged an epic comeback here on Nov. 23 that emerged as a turning point in their 2019-20 season; on Thursday night they returned to author a sequel, and while the plot of this latest one may have strayed in meaningful ways from the original, the pivotal scene - that is, the game-winning goal - turned out to be a shot-for-shot remake.
Adam Fox's goal with 7:39 remaining in Thursday's game easily could have been mistaken for Jacob Trouba's goal with 7:50 to play in the Rangers' visit here three months ago - the right defenseman shooting from off the right wall, into a Chris Kreider screen on Carey Price, the goaltender getting a piece of it but not enough as it squirts over the line. Cue the groans around the Bell Centre.
Fox, though, only continues to make it clear that he is a one-of-a-kind player. He was unrelenting on Thursday night, even during stretches when his teammates were struggling to find their footing, and the Rangers needed every bit of it - not to mention every save that Alexandar Georgiev made to keep their task manageable - as they erased a two-goal deficit with a five-goal outburst to beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-2, their fifth straight victory and their extraordinary ninth straight on the road.

The Rangers' rookie blueliner set up the goal that stole the momentum from their hosts, then scored the goal that won it, all part of a dynamic 21:35 of ice. It was his sixth multi-point game this season: Having played in all 63 of the Rangers' games this year, Fox stands seventh among NHL rookies in points (34), which is third among rookie defensemen, and tops all of them at plus-19. But his Head Coach said after this game: "I don't care what the stats are."
"People talk about all these Rookie of the Year candidates and I don't hear his name enough," David Quinn said. "You'd be hard-pressed to find a rookie as good as this guy in the National Hockey League. And you talk to players throughout the League, they notice this guy -- not just because of what he does offensively. Just watch the little things he does defensively.
"He's having one hell of a year and he made some big plays for us tonight."
So too did the designated big players on the Blueshirts - searching for an offensive spark, Quinn put Mika Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin together for the third period, and two days after Panarin set up Zibanejad for the overtime winner at Nassau Coliseum, the same combo got the Rangers the tying goal with 8:54 to play in this one. It was the sixth straight game in which Zibanejad has scored, the 11th straight in which Panarin has had a point.
But it was another night on which the contributions were spread out, including Phil Di Giuseppe's first goal as a Ranger, which turned the tide of the game, and a pair of goals from Ryan Strome, which put the game to bed. Julien Gauthier, too, playing his first NHL game in his hometown, had his first point as a Ranger, an assist on the game-tying goal in front of family and friends.
And then there was Georgiev, who showed some mettle here back on Nov. 23 when he shook off four early Canadiens goals. On Thursday night it was his skill that came through - he made 32 saves, beaten only by a breakaway and a bounce off a teammate's skate as he won for the 13th time in 17 road games this season.
"He was immense," Quinn said. "He made some big saves in the first period when we were really sluggish. Made some big saves in the second as well. Georgie was big, big tonight,"
All of it added up to yet another win Off-Broadway, which extends the franchise record these surging Blueshirts have put together - their ninth straight victory on the road, two more than any other Ranger team has ever had. And it kept all the momentum going behind one of the NHL's hottest teams - five straight wins now, and nine in their last 10 games as they move on to Philadelphia for a Friday night game that kicks off a home-and-home with the Flyers.
Entering that one, the Blueshirts have whittled the gap between themselves and the playoff cut line to just two points, and they have two games in hand on the Blue Jackets, who currently hold the second Wild Card spot. "Teams are starting to see us catching them in the standings a little bit," Strome said.
That's because the Rangers also have set a franchise record with their 11th win in the month of February, and are 12-3 since the All-Star break. This latest one required a jumpstart in the later stages, but "I just love the way we responded in the third," Quinn said. "Just a lot of good hockey in the third period."
"You don't want to rely on just having one good period," said Zibanejad, "but going into the third, you can't change anything that happened in the first two periods. So we just started to battle. We started playing faster."
Max Domi put the Habs in front 3:12 in, and Tomas Tatar doubled their lead on a breakaway with 2:59 left in the middle period. Crucially for the Rangers, Tatar's marker was answered only 93 seconds later, when Fox spun around below the goal line and slid a puck out front for Di Giuseppe to chop past Price (30 saves).
"That first goal was huge, getting that goal before the end of the (period)," Quinn said. "Hell of a play by Fox and Di Giuseppe, who had a really good night. He goes to the net and we get a goal. I think that goal really ignited us for the third period."
With the clock passing nine minutes to play, Panarin took Gauthier's drop pass, dusted it off a couple times as the Montreal defense backed in, then laid it over to an oncoming Zibanejad, who beat Price from the right dot.
The way Panarin was stickhandling it, the threat of a shot was always there, but Zibanejad said: "I was expecting the pass. He does a good such a good job of keeping the puck and keeping the defenseman guessing there, and that creates enough room for me to get away that shot.
"I mean, he's incredible with the puck. His hockey IQ is through the roof. It's an unbelievable play."
With Brendan Gallagher in the box for shoving Ryan Lindgren into his own net, Strome provided the insurance with 4:37 to play, a power-play redirection of Tony DeAngelo's shot. And with Price removed for an extra skater, Strome's pass for Panarin was tipped by Shea Weber right on target for the empty net.
"Our lineup looks a lot different the way our four lines are rolling right now," Quinn said "Like I've said, we haven't had passengers. We maybe had some passengers for the first two periods, but they got on board for the third."