Rangers win fifth straight after rallying with four goals in third to beat Montreal

MONTREAL — The last time the Rangers played at Bell Centre against the Canadiens, they pulled off an improbable comeback from a four-goal deficit to post a season-turning win.

Thursday’s result was hardly as shocking. Rallying from a two-goal hole to beat the fading Canadiens, 5-2, well, that almost felt kind of routine.

“I don’t know if it’s this building,’’ defenseman Adam Fox said of the Rangers’ second straight comeback win in Montreal. “Obviously, last time was a nice comeback, and today was big too. But I think we’re just a confident group. We never think we’re down and out.’’

The Rangers (35-24-4, 74 points) — who pulled within two points of the idle Blue Jackets for the second Eastern Conference wild-card spot and have two games in hand on Columbus — have won a season-high five in a row and nine of 10 overall. They extended their club-record road winning streak to nine and set a club record for wins in February with 11.

Fox, the rookie from Jericho, got off to a tough start when Max Domi’s centering pass for linemate Tomas Tatar bounced off his skate and in to give the Canadiens the lead 3:12 into the first period. But Fox rebounded from that, playing another strong game in a rookie year full of them.

After the Rangers came back from 2-0 down to tie it at 2-2 at 11:06 of the third period on Mika Zibanejad’s 30th goal, Fox scored the winner. He sent a low, seeing-eye shot through a screen set by Chris Kreider and past goaltender Carey Price at 12:21.

“I saw it had a little chance [to get in], but I was just trying to most of all get it through,’’ Fox said of his seventh goal. “I knew Kreids was in front. [That was] a good screen out of him to create a lane there.’’

Ryan Strome deflected Tony DeAngelo’s shot past Price for a power-play goal at 15:53 and added an empty-netter with 1:33 left. The goals were his 17th and 18th.

The Rangers’ strong finish may have had something to do with coach David Quinn’s calling out his team’s top two lines for being underwhelming in the first two periods.

Quinn decided to make some changes late in the second period, putting his top two players, Zibanejad and Artemi Panarin, together on the top line. It didn’t work immediately; in the first shift those two were together, Tatar scored a breakaway goal that made it 2-0 at 17:01 of the second period.

By the end of the night, though, Zibanejad had scored, Panarin had two key assists and Strome, the second-line center, had his two goals plus an assist.

“Our third and fourth lines were really good for the first two periods and our top two lines stunk,’’ Quinn said when asked why he lit into his team during the second intermission. “We’re not going anywhere when our top two lines play the way they did in the first two periods. And that was basically what I said. I said, ‘If you two lines start playing like these other two lines, we’re going to have a chance to win.’

“And I give them a lot of credit, they upped their game, and I really liked our third period, from all four lines to our defense corps, and our goalie had to make a few saves in the third as well.’’

Alexandar Georgiev (16-12-1) made his second straight start. He had 32 saves, including 12 in the first period, when the Canadiens dominated but had only one goal to show for it.

Quinn said Georgiev will start Friday when the Rangers visit the Philadelphia Flyers in the first of a home-and-home set. They also will play Sunday at the Garden. The Rangers are five points behind the Flyers, who hold third place in the Metropolitan Division.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.