Rangers' winning streak stopped at seven

MONTREAL -- What is gauche -- awkward or graceless -- in English can merely mean "lefthanded" in French, the sort of compliment the previously streaking Rangers got from the Montreal Canadiens Saturday night. Instead of an urge to express thanks -- "merci" -- for the chance to show off the league's longest winning streak in this hockey temple, the Rangers were left thinking "mercy!"

They were on the "rue" -- road -- to their most consecutive wins, eight, in 37 years. Instead, they could only rue being repeatedly beaten to the puck and generally discombobulated by Montreal's constant pressure and overall jump.

Easily translated, the 4-0 Montreal victory Saturday night not only handed the Rangers their first loss since Oct. 29 but also burdened backup goalie Martin Biron with a disappointing night in what he called one of the sport's "special" showplaces.

Though unbeaten in three previous decisions this season, with a 0.95 goals-against average, the 34-year-old Biron hadn't appeared to be the likely starter in place of Henrik Lundqvist (7-3-3, 2.13 GAA), who had been at his all-star best during the Rangers' streak and was well rested.

Rangers coach John Tortorella insisted it simply was Biron's turn and had nothing to do with the fact that Lundqvist has struggled here (3.36 goals-against). And in the end, Tortorella insisted, "Don't look at our goalie. Our whole crew in front of him never had the puck.

"Their speed; we had problems. We were chasing the game the whole night. Didn't do much with battles, didn't do much with races to pucks. Never caught up to it. Right through our lineup."

Biron and his mates already were scrambling to survive an early penalty on defenseman Ryan McDonagh when Montreal's Erik Cole flew down his off wing, to Biron's left, took a snap pass from Yannick Weber and cracked a slap shot into the net only 3:45 into the proceedings.

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Biron then withstood a series of carefully choreographed, full-throttle Montreal attacks, only to be hit with Brian Gionta's whistling shot, delivered from an impossible angle along the right boards into the goal's far corner at 3:45 of the second.

"I was just overthinking it," Biron said. "The short side and bad angle, he's all by himself, I should just face up to him and make that save."

Cole's swiftness gave Rangers defenseman Michael Del Zotto so much trouble that Tortorella made a rare switch in the defensive pairs that have been so reliable this season, moving McDonagh from the first unit with Dan Girardi to work alongside Michael Sauer. "And let's face it; none of our Ds played well," Tortorella said.

The Rangers were taking too many penalties (nine), facing too many power plays (Montreal was 2-for-6) and generating too few shots (17 to Montreal's 31), a vicious cycle that steadily drained their vim and vigor in a rink where they expected to feed off the energy of 21,273 fans.

So while Carey Price worked to shut out the Rangers for the first time since Oct. 22 in Edmonton, Tomas Plekanec and Gionta added third-period goals.

Whatever the bilingual Biron, a native of Quebec province, offered, with what McDonagh called his "calmness and communication," couldn't help -- whether Biron spoke in his native French or not. Said McDonagh, "I don't know any French."