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Koivu caps rally as Canadiens top Rangers

Feb 20, 2008 - 4:44 AM MONTREAL (Ticker) -- Captain Saku Koivu scored the lone tally in the second round of the shootout as the Montreal Canadiens overcame a five-goal deficit to defeat the New York Rangers, 6-5, in a battle of "Original Six" teams.

Cristobal Huet, who came on in relief of rookie Carey Price, finished with 20 saves and stopped Brendan Shanahan, Chris Drury and captain Jaromir Jagr in the bonus format.

It was the first time in Montreal's storied history that it rallied from a five-goal deficit to win a game.

"Even though we weren't happy the way we played in the first part of the game, we came back to get the points," Koivu said. "This is the type of game that you build some momentum and some confidence after the season. When you look at the turning points I'm sure that this will be one of them."

After the Rangers rolled to a 5-0 lead in the second period, Michael Ryder and Alexei Kovalev tallied twice apiece and defenseman Mark Streit also scored to level the game for the Canadiens.

Shanahan scored two goals and now has 20 tallies on the season for the 19th consecutive campaign. Jagr finished with four assists.

Brandon Dubinsky and Sean Avery scored 14 seconds apart and Drury also tallied for the Rangers, who saw their modest two-game winning come to an end.

"It's not an easy game for us to lose, no question about that," New York coach Tom Renney said. "I'm not going to suggest that we're OK with this - we're not, we're mad, we're (angry).

"We are a team that has begun to define itself by bouncing back, by playing big games. We know where we are in the standings and, more importantly, we know where we are with 20 games to go. We're never going to take a period for granted - we got a point but we have to learn a valuable lesson from tonight."

Dubinsky opened the scoring at 8:50 of the first period, wristing a shot from 25 feet out past Price for his 11th goal of the season.

After Avery doubled the advantage just 14 ticks later following a brilliant feed from Jagr, Shanahan gave New York a three-goal bulge after accepting a centering feed from the captain and wristing the puck past Price.

That tally ended the evening for rookie netminder, who was 3-0-0 with a 1.32 goals-against average in his last three games.

Shanahan tallied again just 4:35 into the second period, deflecting Jagr's low wrist shot past Huet to record his 20th goal of the season.

"We're a little embarrassed and not happy about it getting only one point when we were winning 5-0," Shanahan said. "We got back on our heels and we were guilty of not playing the game we started to play.

"This is kind of one of those crazy games that certainly is not a pattern with us. We're upset about it, but it's not something we're going to make into a bigger deal than it is."

After Drury gave New York a 5-0 lead just 28 seconds later, Ryder scored twice in a span of 4:24 as the Canadiens began to chip away.

Kovalev and Streit scored nine seconds apart in the third period, before Kovalev tallied with 4:22 remaining in the third to tie the game at 5-5.

"It's tough to really explain what happened tonight," Kovalev said. "It was pretty exciting for us and for the fans. It was unbelievable, we showed a lot of character and surprised a lot of people."

Kovalev's first tally cut the Rangers' lead to 5-3 just 6:43 into the third period.

All-Star defenseman Andrei Markov fed Kovalev from the left point to the right of Lundqvist, allowing Kovalev to step into the puck and lifting it past the netminder.

After the faceoff, Ryder gained possession of the puck along the boards and skated toward the slot before wristing a shot. Mark Streit deflected the puck as it sailed by Lundqvist to halve the deficit.

The crowd initially thought Ryder recorded the hat trick, but the players knew better.

"I knew I didn't have (the goal) - we told the ref on the ice it was Streit," Ryder said. "I just wanted to get the puck to the net and good things happened. The whole team definitely played well. We showed character to bounce back from 5-0, it was a big boost for us, especially at this time of the year."

Kovalev capped the rally with a wrist shot from the top of the right faceoff circle.

"As long as they (the goals) go in, I don't care how I do it," Kovalev said.

Renney admits that his team took one on the chin on Tuesday.

"We're going to have to throw it away, but we're also going to have to learn," Renney said. "We kind of got back on our heels and let them back in the game.

"I give the Montreal fans a ton of credit. That's what you're supposed to do ... be behind your team and they did a great job of that. This hockey team, which is very dangerous, fed off of that and took what we gave them."