Old And New Rangers Get Huge Win Over Canadiens While Panthers Lose

New York Rangers captain Chris Drury scored twice and goalie Henrik Lundqvist made 24 saves for a huge 3-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens.

The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Florida Panthers 2-1, helping the Rangers to move out of a tie with Florida and up to just one point behind Montreal.

The Rangers (41-30-9) now have eighth in the Eastern Conference standings all to themselves with two games left to play -- against the Flyers. New York can clinch a playoff spot with one more Ranger win or one loss by Florida.
 
New York has 91 points and a two-point lead on Florida.

Big individual efforts by Sean Avery and Nik Antropov led to the winning goal at the start of the second period. Antropov shook off a knee injury to get into the lineup and scored with a dive against goalie Carey Price.

When the Canadiens' goalie went behind his net to stop the puck, Sean Avery charged in to break up the play. He passed it out to the front of the net and Antropov flew through the air to reach out and poke it into the net.

Antropov was a force all night, playing on the Rangers' first line with Avery and Scott Gomez. 

Antropov has seven goals and five assists in 16 games since being traded to New York by Toronto.

Avery played close to twenty minutes, had four shots, six hits, blocked a couple of shots, drew a penalty, and took a few hits as usual, too.

The entire Rangers team stepped up for the victory over the Canadiens. The Rangers outshot Montreal 44 to 25 in dominating the game.

Chris Drury scored his 21st and 22nd goals of the season. Ryan Callahan had two assists.

The Rangers' power play was pointless, again, though the penalty-killing unit was perfect.

The Rangers finish the regular with games against the Flyers on Thursday in New York and on Sunday in Philadelphia.

Montreal plays its last road game of the regular season on Saturday in Boston.