Rangers snap five-game skid, beating Canadiens on Kaapo Kakko's last-minute goal

The Rangers were eager to turn the page after Friday’s disheartening loss to the Flyers in Philadelphia. They were desperate to end their five-game losing streak and a Saturday afternoon matchup against the last-place team in the Eastern Conference on Saturday in Madison Square Garden seemed like their best chance to do that.

“Just get one win,’’ center Mika Zibanejad had said in the visitor’s locker room in Philadelphia Friday. “That's it right now. Get one win. Honestly, I think that winning solves a lot.’’

The Rangers a blew a two-goal lead in the third period, but Montreal’s Kirby Dach’s four-minute high-sticking penalty against Zibanejad with 2:40 remaining in regulation gave the Rangers a chance to get that win, and Kaapo Kakko’s power-play goal with 22.5 seconds left made it happen, giving the Rangers a too-close 4-3 win.

The Rangers carried a 3-1 lead into the third period, but Cole Caufield got free in the left circle and snapped a shot past Jonathan Quick at 4:16, and then Nick Suzuki beat the diving Braden Schneider to the back post to tap in a feed from Mike Matheson and tie it, 3-3, at 14:07.

The Rangers, starting a five-game homestand, were boosted by the return to the lineup of injured forwards Chris Kreider, who had missed three games with back spasms, and Filip Chytil, who’d missed seven games with an upper body injury that was deemed not to be a concussion.

The victory upped the Rangers’ record to 13-9-1 overall and 6-4-1 at home. But they will face a stern test in their next game Monday when the high-flying Devils invade the Garden. Quick earned the 398th win of his career, and improved his record on the season to 5-1. 

With Kreider and Chytil back in the lineup, Laviolette took the opportunity to rearrange his forward lines, and he made what looked like some pretty drastic changes. Chytil was inserted onto a new top line, between Artemi Panarin and Will Cuylle, the team’s top two scorers, while Mika Zibanejad, normally the No. 1 center, was dropped to the third line, between Kreider and  Kakko.

Rookie Brett Berard, who has brought energy in his three games since being called up from AHL Hartford, stayed in the lineup, shifting to left wing on the second line, with center Vincent Trocheck and Alexis Lafreniere. With Berard staying in the lineup, veteran Reilly Smith was scratched, along with Jonny Brodzinski.

With so many poor starts in recent games, including Friday in the 3-1 loss to Philadelphia, Laviolette emphasized   a stronger start to this one.

“The game time is 1 o'clock,’’ he said before the game. “We've got to be there. We’ve got to play with some speed and some attitude . . .  We got outdone in both of those areas [Friday], which is unacceptable for a team that sits where we sit.’’

And the Rangers did start better than they have in quite a while, taking the game’s first three shots, outshooting Montreal 9-1 at one point, and scoring the game’s first goal at 9:02, from Artemi Panarin on a 5-on-3 power play. It was their first power-play goal in nine games.

Montreal equalized on a screened shot from the slot by defenseman Mike Matheson at 11:47, but Trocheck’s redirection of Lafreniere’s shot, while falling down, got behind goalie Sam Montembeault with 2.3 seconds left in the period to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead.

The Canadiens rebounded and had the better of play in the second period, but the Rangers got the only goal when Josh Anderson was called for roughing on Ryan Lindgren — it didn’t look like much on replay — and Zibanejad scored on the power play at 17:03 to make it 3-1.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

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.