Caufield scores 48th, 49th goals of season, Canadiens edge Rangers for 7th straight win

NEW YORK -- Cole Caufield scored his 48th and 49th goals of the season, and the Montreal Canadiens won their seventh in a row with a 3-2 victory against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Thursday.

Caufield is one goal from becoming the first Canadiens player to score at least 50 goals in a season since Stephane Richer had 51 in 1989-90.

“He’s on a tremendous heater right now,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said. “Playing the right way, doing the right things and getting rewarded for it.”

Caufield has 28 goals in his past 27 games. He is one goal behind Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche for the NHL lead. He also has 26 road goals on the season, which is the second most in a season by a Canadiens player since Guy Lafleur had 33 in 1976-77.

His second goal of the night with 5:05 left in regulation snapped a 2-2 tie after the Canadiens blew a 2-0 lead midway through the third period.

Montreal remained in third place in the Atlantic Division, two points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning and Buffalo Sabres, who are tied for first with 100 points each. The Canadiens and Lightning have played one fewer game than Buffalo.

Alex Newhook also scored and Jacob Fowler made 22 saves for the Canadiens (44-21-10).

Adam Fox and Will Cuylle scored and Igor Shesterkin made 22 saves for the Rangers (31-36-9), who had a three-game win streak snapped. They were eliminated from playoff contention on March 25.

Caufield said he loves the pressure that comes with playing on the top line with Juraj Slafkovsky and Suzuki in a playoff push.

“It means you’re putting yourself in a good situation,” Caufield said. “In years past, we haven’t been able to get there, and right now, where the League’s at, our division, there’s pressure every night, and that’s what makes this thing so fun.”

The winning play began with a face-off in the Rangers zone. The Canadiens won the face-off and whipped the puck around the boards to Caufield, who collected it at center ice and had a one-on-one against New York defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov. He cut to the middle of ice, backed up Gavrikov and was able to snap a shot through Shesterkin’s pads to make it 3-2 at 14:55 of the third period.

“It was kind of a weird situation where the puck dropped, I’m not sure what happened,” Caufield said. “I’m taking off and just playing the game in front of me. I’m just trying to throw one on there and sometimes those go in.”

He scored his 48th of the season at 6:20 of the second period to give Montreal a 2-0 lead. He took a pass from behind the net from Slafkovsky and fired a shot over Shesterkin’s right shoulder.

“When you have a goal-scorer like that you can always find a pass and there’s a good chance it’s going to go in,” Slafkovsky said. “I hope he can get it (50 goals) as soon as possible and get a lot more.”

When asked if getting 50 goals and catching MacKinnon is on his mind, Caufield first gave a quick, “no.” But after a pause, he gave an enthusiastic, “like yeah,” drawing laughs from the media.

“I just say the same as our coach, we’re focused on our team game and winning games and I think individual stuff comes with that. Obviously, it helps when you’re winning games, but you’d be crazy not to know what’s going on around the League.

“So again, still hungry. A couple more games to go.”

His first goal came 1:44 after Newhook gave Montreal at 1-0 lead at 4:36 of the second with a one-timer on a feed from Ivan Demidov that beat Shesterkin. Fox cut the Canadiens’ lead to 2-1 at 9:23 of the third, collecting a loose puck to the right of the goal and putting it past Fowler, who was down on the ice.

The Rangers made it 2-2 at 14:08 when Cuylle went to the net and deflected in a shot from Jonny Brodzinski in the slot.

“Our effort, I thought, was there all night long,” Rangers coach Mike Sullivan said. “It’s unfortunate the goal that beat us seemed like a nothing play.”

The Canadiens have seven games left in the regular season and still have a chance to win the division and the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. After playing at the New Jersey Devils on Saturday to conclude their current five-game road trip, they play the next four at home before ending the season with two on the road.

“I know that we have better than tonight,” coach Martin St. Louis said, “but overall, I felt we put ourselves in a spot to win a game.”

NOTES: Caufield’s second goal of the game was his 12th game-winning goal of the season, matching Lafleur (1977-78, 1975-76), Yvan Cournoyer (1975-76), Bernie Geoffrion (1960-61) and Maurice Richard (1955-56) for the second most in a single season by a Canadiens player. The only player with more is Lafleur, who had 13 in 1978-79. … It was Caufield’s 12th multigoal game of the season, which is tied for fifth most in Canadiens history. The seven-game streak is Montreal’s longest since Oct. 18 to Nov. 2, 2016 (8-0-0).