Rangers rout Canadiens to win fourth straight as Filip Chytil nets a pair
Filip Chytil #72 of the Rangers celebrates his goal with teammates during the third period against the Montreal Canadiens at the Bell Centre on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024 in Montreal. Credit: Getty Images
MONTREAL — Even with the Rangers undefeated in regulation after the first five games, coach Peter Laviolette didn’t sound completely satisfied Tuesday morning, before his team closed out its three-game road trip with a game against the Canadiens at Bell Centre.
“Some of [the start]’s been really good and then some of it, we need to get better,’’ he said.
Well, Laviolette’s team made some strides toward that end against the Canadiens, blitzing them for four goals in the first 11:05 of the game, chasing starting goaltender Sam Montembeault in the process, and completing a sweep of the trip with a 7-2 victory to lift their record to 5-0-1 on the young season.
It was the fourth straight win for the Rangers, who set a franchise record with points in six games to start a season.
They are 4-0 on the road, which ties a franchise record to start a season.
For the first time in franchise history, the Rangers have scored at least four goals in each of the first six games of a season. They are the fourth team in the NHL since 1990-91 to accomplish the feat.
“We got a lot out of all the lines right from the drop of the puck,’’ Laviolette said after it was over. “[It was] maybe the best team win of the year. I thought consistency from all lines just going over the boards was really good.’’
Filip Chytil had two goals, Mika Zibanejad, Jonny Brodzinski, Reilly Smith, Braden Schneider and Kaapo Kakko scored one, and Igor Shesterkin made 21 saves as they dominated a young Montreal team playing without star Juraj Slafkovsky.
“We were better tonight defensively,’’ Laviolette said. “Shesty is always gonna have to make some saves. He did. I thought he was real sharp. But we were a little tighter, a little cleaner, especially after the first 10, 12, minutes of the game.’’
Defenseman Ryan Lindgren, who missed the first five games of the season while on injured reserve with an upper-body injury, came off IR to make his season debut.
“I felt good,’’ said Lindgren, who revealed he’d had a jaw injury suffered in his preseason fight with the Islanders’ Scott Mayfield, and had surgery on it. “Obviously, I was maybe a little rusty or whatever but yeah, it felt pretty good.’’
Playing on a third defense pair, partnered with rookie Victor Mancini, Lindgren played 17 minutes, 20 seconds, and had two shot attempts.
“It was awesome to have him back in there,’’ Laviolette said. “He’s just a real good defender who plays heavy minutes and hard minutes for us. And I thought him and Vic did pretty well together, as well.”
The Montreal fans, always so knowledgeable and supportive of the home team, were cheering a strong shift by their heroes in the Rangers’ end when the Rangers quieted them with Zibanejad’s goal 54 seconds into the game.
The Rangers appeared hemmed in on first shift, but Jacob Trouba (team-high plus-5) blocked a couple of shots and on the second, the Rangers broke out with Artemi Panarin carrying the puck up ice. He passed across to Adam Fox, who’d just come onto the ice, and Fox passed back across to Zibanejad, who’d also just come on. Zibanejad one-timed a shot past Montembeault for his second goal of the season.
The Rangers got a break to go up 2-0 on Brodzinski’s first goal of the season at 2:05. Schneider appeared to ice the puck from deep in his own end, but as the puck crossed the goal line, two Montreal players chasing the puck stopped skating. Adam Edstrom didn’t, and he not only negated the icing, but he got the puck behind the net and dropped it back to Brodzinski, who slammed it past Montembeault.
Then Smith stole the puck from rookie defenseman Lane Hutson in the neutral zone and swooped in from the right wing and wristed a shot past Montembeault to make it 3-0 at 6:40. Chytil’s power-play goal at 11:05 made it 4-0 and prompted Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis to yank Montembeault in favor of Cayden Primeau.
Nick Suzuki got the Canadiens back in the game with two goals spanning the first and second periods, but Schneider’s second goal of the season, at 8:57 of the second, made it 5-2.
Chytil scored his second at 15:41 of the third period and Kakko added his first goal of the season at 16:19.
“He could have passed to me for a hat trick, but he shot it from the wall,’’ Chytil said of Kakko. “But nah, I’m just joking. I’m happy that he scored a goal. He’s playing great.’’
Blue notes
Panarin (assist, 5 shots on goal) extended his season-opening point streak to six games (six goals, seven assists) . . . Kakko (goal, two assists) earned his first career three-point game . . . K'Andre Miller played in his 300th NHL game . . . Chytil had his second career three-point game . . . The Rangers’ 31 goals are the most for an NHL team through their first six games since the Devils and Kings in 1993-94.
Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
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