The duality to this Rangers team was encapsulated by Saturday’s 5-4 overtime win over the Canadiens.
Despite falling behind by three goals early, the Blueshirts rallied to force overtime before captain J.T. Miller scored his second goal of the night with the extra skater 2:56 into the extra period to snag a 5-4 win over the Canadiens at Madison Square Garden.
After entering the game one point behind the Habs in the standings, the Rangers leapfrogged the Canadiens to pull even with the Penguins at 36 points in prime wild-card position in the Eastern Conference.
They did it all in front of a collection of the organization’s biggest names, who gathered at the Garden for the latest centennial theme night celebrating the New Garden era.
Reaching overtime for the third time in the past four games, the Rangers finally emerged victorious.
The Rangers were outshooting the Canadiens 5-0 when the visitors scored on their first shot of the game nearly 13 minutes in.
Zachary Bolduc cut to the slot and banged home a feed from Nick Suzuki.
Arber Xhekaj then found the back of the net on the Habs’ second shot of the game, scoring from the top of the zone and through traffic for a 2-0 lead.
A snipe from Jake Evans in the circle just over two minutes later had the game feeling out of hand early.
With 11 seconds left on the Rangers’ first power play, however, Noah Laba put in a rebound to stop the onslaught.
Attacking the net on a partial breakaway at the tail end of the opening frame, Artemi Panarin was awarded a penalty shot after Noah Dobson was all over him.
The star Russian wing put one past Habs goalie Jacob Fowler — appearing in just his second NHL game — to make it a one-goal game going into the first intermission.
It marked the first successful penalty shot by a Ranger since Dan Boyle in 2015.
The Rangers had missed on their previous 11 consecutive attempts.
The Habs reestablished their two-goal lead thanks to Josh Anderson’s one-timer from the slot, but the home team grabbed the reins in the second period.
Will Cuylle got it started by banking the puck in off Fowler from a tough angle to make it a 4-3 game.
Just 35 seconds later, Miller collected a rebound and backhanded it in to even the score at four-all.
Early in the third period, the Rangers nearly took their first lead of the night when Sam Carrick jammed the puck in through a crowd.
Upon review, however, it was deemed that the puck was kicked in.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
