Laine scores in OT, Canadiens rally past Rangers

MONTREAL -- Patrik Laine scored at 3:20 of overtime for the Montreal Canadiens, who trailed four times before rallying for a 5-4 win against the New York Rangers at Bell Centre on Sunday.

“We obviously wanted to bounce back after last night (a 7-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs). That was a tough one,” Laine said. “We were giving them a couple of freebies tonight, and we knew that if we just stayed with the way we were playing we would get the results at some point.”

Jakub Dobes made 23 saves for his fifth win in his first five NHL starts for Montreal (23-19-4), which is 12-3-1 in its past 16 games since Dec. 17.

“My dad is here and I haven’t seen him in a year and a half almost,” Dobes said. “He’s a big impact on my hockey career so I just wanted to do good. And not everything was going my way today, so it was a battle. My mind was definitely racing a little bit but we got it done, so we are going to celebrate with my dad and I’m just really happy that we got the win.”

Jonathan Quick made 33 saves for the Rangers but was denied his 400th NHL win for the third straight game. He would be the first U.S.-born goalie to reach the mark.

“I think he played great and made some big saves, especially at the start of the third,” Rangers defenseman Adam Fox said. “Obviously we want to get the two points for the team but also for a guy that’s bailed us out a lot and been there for us since he’s been here, I think we want to reciprocate that.”

Alexis Lafreniere, Will Cuylle, Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider scored, and Fox had two assists for New York (22-20-4), which extended its point streak to eight games (5-0-3).

“We hit the post twice in the third, we could have put the game away then, as well, and it didn’t bounce our way,” Rangers coach Peter Laviolette said. “We had two point-blank chances in overtime; that didn’t go our way either. It’s tough to leave the points on the table, and we’re searching for points, but I thought that the guys gave everything, especially in the circumstances, gave everything for 65 minutes.”

Lafreniere put the Rangers up 1-0 at 11:17 of the first period. He shot between Dobes’ glove and left pad after the puck dropped into the goalmouth when K'Andre Miller’s shot came back off the end boards.

Brendan Gallagher tied it 1-1 at 13:52 when he tipped Christian Dvorak’s shot between Quick’s legs.

Cuylle gave New York a 2-1 lead at 14:38 with a low shot past Dobes’ glove from the slot after dropping to one knee to cut off a clearing attempt by Canadiens defenseman Arber Xhekaj.

Dvorak tied it 2-2 at 5:07 of the second when his shot from the right side of the slot deflected into the net off New York forward Filip Chytil’s stick.

Zibanejad’s wrist shot from the high slot on the power play made it 3-2 at 10:24.

Nick Suzuki tied it 3-3 at 15:05 when he scored with a wrist shot from the slot after cutting off Rangers defenseman Will Borgen’s pass.

Kreider put the Rangers back in front, tipping in Fox’s back-door pass to make it 4-3 at 16:20.

“That kind of comes on me,” Dobes said. “When the guys score you cannot give up a goal right away, so that’s something that I need to think of. I need to make sure that the momentum is on our side as long as possible. The guys were really good, and cheers to them, they were really good today.”

Juraj Slafkovsky tied it 4-4 at 12:52 of the third. He drove to the net and put in the rebound of Cole Caufield’s shot.

“It’s always good to get points, I think that’s important, but down the road those extra points are going to be big,” Fox said.

NOTES: Dobes became the fourth goaltender born outside North America to win each of his first five career games, joining Frederik Andersen (six in 2014-15), Pyotr Kochetkov (five from 2021-22 – 2022-23) and Antero Niittymaki (five from 2003-04 – 2005-06). … Artemi Panarin got his 340th assist with New York on Zibanejad’s goal to tie Steve Vickers for ninth-most in Rangers history. … Lane Hutson assisted on Slafkovsky’s goal to extend his assist and point streaks to eight games (one goal, 11 assists). He tied Barry Beck (Colorado Rockies in 1977-78) for the second-longest assist streak by a rookie defenseman in NHL history. Shayne Gostisbehere had a nine-game assist streak for the Philadelphia Flyers in 2015-16. … The four game-tying goals tied the Canadiens record for a single game. It was the 12th time Montreal accomplished the feat, the first since a 6-5 loss at the Vancouver Canucks on Jan. 20, 2021.