The Rangers are having a very disappointing season.
And the Montreal Canadiens, meanwhile, were corrected the night before by the Toronto Maple Leafs in a 7-3 loss.
If we combine all that with the extremely tight standings in the Atlantic Division, we could thus expect a great match between the two teams on Sunday night.
Before the game, the CH recalled Owen Beck, who took the place of Michael Pezzetta in the lineup, as he has only been allowed a few short appearances per game over the past few weeks.
Following the 7-3 loss, and the fact that it was a second game in 24 hours, Jakub Dobes was getting his second start in 72 hours.
Here is the lineup that the Tricolore presented for the match:
The CH started the game relatively slowly, but still had the upper hand over the Rangers in shots (9-5). However, New York was luckier and especially more opportunistic.
First, Alexis Lafrenière opened the scoring by taking advantage of a tricky bounce.
Interestingly, fans at the Bell Centre are still very resentful towards Chris Kreider and do not hesitate to boo him when he has the puck.
A few minutes after Lafrenière’s goal, Brendan Gallagher brought everyone back to square one with a nice deflection.
Number 11 cleverly redirected Christian Dvorak’s shot to score his 11th goal of the season.
Josh Anderson also collected an assist on that goal.
However, it only took 46 seconds for the Rangers to regain the lead in the game.
Will Cuylle scored his 12th goal of the season, unassisted.
This goal did not please the Tricolore, who decided to transform into Big Bad Habs.
There was a big brawl near both teams’ benches.
What caught attention was Josh Anderson, who did not spare Braden Schneider.
The latter was cut on the lip during the sequence.
It was thus on a score of 2-1 in favor of the Rangers that both teams retreated to the locker room after the first period.
Right at the beginning of the second period, a worrying scene involving Josh Anderson occurred.
The power forward fell awkwardly while his knee was caught between Arthur Kaliyev’s legs and had to leave for the locker room.
Few expected him to return to the game, even less in the middle of the second period.
And that’s exactly what happened.
Meanwhile, a lot happened.
First, the spectators present at the game got their money’s worth: Finally, a first fight between Arber Xhekaj and Matt Rempe.
And let’s just say that even though Rempe cheated by jumping Xhekaj early, the CH defender taught him a good lesson with his left hand.
Additionally, Christian Dvorak recreated the tie with his 4th goal of the season (and second point of the game).
This time, it was the Tricolore’s turn to benefit from a lucky bounce.
Brendan Gallagher also earned a second point in the game with the primary assist, while Alex Newhook now has four assists this season.
In this back-and-forth game, it was then the Rangers’ turn to get on the scoreboard.
Mika Zibanejad took advantage of a power play to score his 9th goal of the season.
Adam Fox and Artemi Panarin received assists.
About five minutes later in the game, the captain stepped up (once again) and led by example in the best way.
He forced a turnover by stripping the puck from the Rangers’ defender for his 14th goal of the season.
Unfortunately, Chris Kreider had to restore the lead for his team.
It was thus 4-3 for the Rangers after 40 minutes of play.
Unlike the two other periods, it was relatively quiet offensively in the third.
Only one goal was scored, and Juraj Slafkovsky tied the game to send everyone into overtime.
Lane Hutson again collected an assist, his 35th of the season. It was thus an eighth consecutive game for Hutson with at least one point.
Caufield also earned an assist on the goal.
Jakub Dobes was on fire in overtime with several key saves on quality shots.
This quickly set the tone in this overtime period, and who else but Patrik Laine to give victory to the Sainte-Flanelle in this very intense match.
That’s already 12 for Laine this season.
The next game for the CH will be on Tuesday in Montreal against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Overtime
– Overall, the game was fiercely contested. The two teams exchanged goals back and forth, in addition to generously handing out body checks. There was also a lot of scrumming and commotion during stoppages.
– It didn’t take long for Nick Suzuki to regain his beautiful smile, which had to fix his broken tooth against Toronto. And it seems to have paid off as he scored a goal.
