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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Rangers net five straight, rally past Montreal

Associated Press The Spokesman-Review

MONTREAL – The New York Rangers got the kind of effort Sunday that they believe can lead them to a successful playoff push.

Chris Drury had the go-ahead goal midway through the third period, and the Rangers scored five unanswered goals in a 5-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens.

Drury redirected Nigel Dawes’ shot past Montreal goalie Cristobal Huet at the right edge of the crease as New York overcame a 3-0 deficit early in the second period to extend its winning streak to three.

“Hopefully, it says a lot,” Drury said. “Hopefully, we grab on to this and it carries us to some more wins down the stretch here because that was definitely a big win for us, on the road and down by three.”

Martin Straka capped the five-goal rally at 18:30 of the third with the Rangers’ second goal of the period.

“This was a huge character win,” Rangers coach Tom Renney said. “If anything punctuates our last three games, this is it. If anything punctuates the character of our team, this is it, but every time we go to the rink moving forward it’s going to check our character and we have to make sure that we use this as a reference point. It’s our job to make sure this is a turning point in our season. It’s that simple.”

After Montreal rookie Sergei Kostitsyn beat Henrik Lundqvist on a penalty shot 5:40 into the second to put the Canadiens up by three, New York scored three times to close out the period. Michal Rozsival and Brandon Dubinsky scored 24 seconds apart to draw the Rangers to 3-2. Scott Gomez scored at 15:40 to tie it at 3.

Andrei Markov and Alex Kovalev each scored power-play goals for Montreal in the first period.

Lundqvist made 25 saves, including a huge stop 55 seconds into the third when he stuck out his right pad to deny Tomas Plekanec after the Canadiens center deked past him on a short-handed breakaway opportunity.

“Sometimes it’s tough when they come from the side with a lot of speed,” Lundqvist said. “He came fast so I tried to poke-check him and he went around, so I tried to be solid with my pad and it worked.”

Huet also stopped 25 shots in his 12th straight start for Montreal, which lost an opportunity to move within one point of Eastern Conference leaders Ottawa for the Northeast Division lead.

Rangers left wing Ryan Hollweg got a boarding major and a game misconduct 15:40 into the second. Hollweg, who was leveled by Kovalev’s shoulder check earlier in the period, was sent off after he checked Kostitsyn from behind headfirst into the boards.

“It was a dirty hit,” said Canadiens defenseman Josh Gorges, who got a roughing minor for going after Hollweg immediately after the hit. “(Kostitsyn) had his back turned and there was no way to defend himself. Those kind of things we don’t need in our game.”