NEW YORK — Martin St. Louis scored at 6:02 of overtime to move the New York Rangers within one win of their first Stanley Cup final in 20 years with a 3-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Sunday.
Game 5 is Tuesday night in Montreal, with the Rangers looking to put the Canadiens to the sword for a third straight game at the Bell Centre.
The victory, which gave the Rangers a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference final, marked the first time the home side had won in the series.
The win also came 20 years to the day that the Rangers defeated New Jersey 4-2 in Game 6 of the Eastern final. New York captain Mark Messier, who had guaranteed the win, scored a natural hat trick that night. The Rangers went on to beat Vancouver for the Cup.
Goalie Mike Richter and five other members of that championship team were in the stands Sunday.
Benoit Pouliot was penalized 30 seconds into OT for holding the stick but the Rangers killed it off. Henrik Lundqvist had to be sharp as the Habs threw pucks at the net.
But the Rangers steadied the ship and St. Louis, who had been buzzing all night, snapped home a shot from the faceoff circle that beat Dustin Tokarski.
“I had a feeling going into the overtime, ’OK, let’s not take another penalty,’ and that’s what we do right away, so we had to step up big there on the P.K. and get the job done, and that was huge,” said Lundqvist. “I think after that, it gave us some confidence for sure, especially when (St. Louis) scores.
“It’s a big relief and exciting at the same time to get the job done at home. A win is a win, but the experience to win in OT at home is always a great feeling.”
Carl Hagelin and Derick Brassard also scored for the Rangers, both on breakaways generated by stretch passes.
Francis Bouillon and P.K. Subban — who played 30:35 in regulation time — scored for Montreal, which came from behind twice.
The Rangers outshot the Canadiens 26-24 in regulation. Montreal had a 5-3 edge in overtime.
Subban’s goal was Montreal’s only success in seven power plays in regulation. New York was 0-for-3 with the man-advantage but scored shorthanded through Hagelin.
“We had the opportunity on the power play and we didn’t take advantage of it tonight,” said Canadiens coach Michel Therrien. “Yes, we scored a goal. It was a timely goal, but we gave up one, and that was the score of the game. I thought our power play had to be better.”
After Subban tied it at 2-2 two minutes into the third, Montreal forward Alex Galchenyuk rang one off the goal post with a little over three minutes remaining. He thought he scored but play continued. Replays showed Lundqvist got his stick to the puck before it hit the crossbar and bounced down — in front of the goal-line.
With New York’s Derek Stepan recovering from a broken jaw suffered on a Brandon Prust hit in Game 3, Dominic Moore moved up to centre Rick Nash and Chris Kreider. Brassard returned from injury to centre Mats Zuccarello and Pouliot. J.T. Miller took the place of the suspended Dan Carcillo on the fourth line.
For Montreal, Michael Bournival stepped in for the suspended Prust on the fourth line and Bouillon replaced defenceman Nathan Beaulieu.
As in Game 3, Montreal found itself down 1-0 after a first period which could have been worse on the scoreboard.
The Habs found themselves killing a penalty before their first shot on net but wasted little time getting in Brassard’s grill in front of goal. Miller made his presence felt by hurling Mike Weaver into the goalpost, for which he was penalized.
Pouliot went to the box for a high stick and the Canadiens finally managed a shot on goal.
New York came into the game not having allowed a power-play goal in its last eight games (22 times shorthanded). And the penalty kill produced offence.
The short-handed Rangers went ahead 12 seconds into the Pouliot penalty thanks to a Brian Boyle stretch pass from the blue-line. The speedy Hagelin broke in alone, faked a shot and tucked a backhand through the legs of Tokarski at 7:18 for his sixth of the playoffs.
Montreal’s David Desharnais failed to corral a pass behind the New York goal and Ryan McDonagh poked the puck to Boyle to trigger the play.
It was the Rangers’ first short-handed goal in 70 playoff games, dating back to April 9, 2008.
The penalty count was three to one against the Rangers by the 10-minute mark, but the Canadiens power play was sputtering.
Montreal began to push back after the goal and Brian Gionta had a glorious chance 12 minutes in on a Lundqvist rebound at the doorstep but the puck bobbled and Lundqvist’s pad was there when the Montreal captain finally got control.
Rangers fourth-liner Derek Dorsett made his presence felt by stapling Weaver into the back boards on a puck chase. And St. Louis played puckhog on another Ranger shift, dipsy-doodling in the Montreal end.
The Canadiens outshot the Rangers 11-9 in the first 20 minutes. Subban, thanks to his time on the power-play unit, saw 12:14 minutes of action.