Kreider scores twice, Rangers beat Canadiens 5-2
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Chris Kreider had two goals and an assist and the New York Rangers beat the Montreal Canadiens 5-2 on Saturday night.
Derick Brassard had a goal and two assists for the Rangers, and J.T. Miller and Derek Stepan also scored.
In his first game at the Bell Centre, Rangers backup goaltender Antti Raanta made 24 saves for his 10th win of the season.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Lars Eller and Phillip Danault had goals for Montreal. Mike Condon stopped 14 of 19 shots before being pulled in the second intermission. Ben Scrivens made four saves in the third.
The Rangers beat Montreal for the first time since Nov. 23, 2014.
New York took advantage of a young Canadiens lineup ravaged by injuries.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Miller made Andrei Markov look silly on the game's first goal at 3:04 of the opening frame. The Rangers forward dangled past Markov with a nifty toe drag, then went five-hole with the backhand on Condon for his 21st goal of the year.
Montreal answered midway through the first, with Eller firing a loose puck past Raanta at 12:26 to make it 1-1. It was the Dane's first point in eight games.
Kreider and Brassard were all over Montreal in the second period.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The visitors regained their one-goal advantage at 1:32, with Brassard taking advantage of a big bounce off the end boards after a missed shot by Kreider. Brassard extended his point streak to four games.
Kreider made it 3-1 on the power play after a clever no-look feed by Brassard at 8:19. The 24-year-old added his second of the game 2 minutes later on a great individual effort.
New York scored four goals on its first 15 shots.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}After Danault got one back for the Canadiens at 15:38 of the second, Stepan added another for the Rangers in the final minute of the period.
New York took three consecutive tripping penalties to start the third, but Montreal failed to capitalize.
Defenseman P.K. Subban (neck) was not in the Canadiens lineup for the eighth straight game. Subban was injured on March 10 against Buffalo when he collided with teammate Alexei Emelin.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}NOTES: Michel Therrien coached his 750th career NHL game. ... Lucas Lessio (undisclosed injury) and Jacob De La Rose (healthy scratch) did not play. ... Sven Andrighetto was back in the lineup after missing the last three games with an upper-body injury. ... The Canadiens signed free agent defenseman Tom Parisi to a two-year, two-way contract on Saturday.