Carey Price will man the crease for Montreal in Game 4

NY has the offense to beat Price if they focus on their offensive play and chase his weaknesses.

The Rangers have learned that the Habs have a difficult time catching up when they’re playing hard and fast; this is the game they need to have if they want the control.

The Penguins now lead 3-1 in the best-of-seven series, which returns to Pittsburgh for Game 5 on Thursday night.

While the Canadiens have the momentum, the Rangers must regroup at home, where they have struggled at times this season.

The goalies entered Game 4 with nearly identical stats, which was in line the pre-series expectations. Instead, the Rangers merged their newfound grit with their established speed and skill game. Fast was able to pounce on the loose puck, and stuffed it through Price’s legs to give the Rangers the 1-0 lead they desperately needed.

Montreal’s Torrey Mitchell scores his team’s first goal in Game 4 against the Rangers Tuesday in NY.

The Rangers settled into a tighter checking game from the 10-18 minute marks. The Rangers generated only 21 shots on Sunday, and their offense will need to do more in order to beat Price.

Ott has had some interesting moments with Zuccarello during this series. With the Rangers leading 3-2 in the final seconds, Tomas Plekanec scored the tying goal after defenseman Nick Holden broke his stick while slashing Plekanec and was unable to prevent the winning deflection from near the crease. That was a complete 180 from Game 2, where the Rangers ultimately shot themselves in the foot by sitting back on their lead late in the game.

Next came Radulov’s goal at 15:35, a play that started because he was in position on the forecheck to intercept Kevin Klein’s pass out of the Rangers’ defensive zone. His Corsi for percentage for Game 2 was 35.29 and his relative Corsi for percentage was minus-8.79.

He finished with 23 saves while only allowing one goal when the Canadiens had a 2-on-1 advantage. They’d be wise to take a page out of the Rangers’ book, who proved how far a few key adjustments can carry you in a playoff series.

But there’s a multitude of ways to make sure opposing players have a hard night.

It took 37:37 spanning the first and second periods to beat either goaltender.

“We ended up turning it over in the neutral zone trying to make those plays at the blue line when we should’ve gotten it behind them and tried to wear down their D”, said captain Max Pacioretty.

Later in the period, the Rangers shot the puck into the Montreal zone on Andrei Markov’s left side. One of the stand out players in the game, Rick Nash was able to put home a feed from captain Ryan McDonagh that ended up being the game victor.

With Montreal playing on the power play in the second period, the Rangers netminder tracked a cross-ice pass and made a diving save on Shea Weber’s one-timer.

“They threw a lot of pucks at our net, but I don’t think there were too many chances”.

The Canadiens had a flurry of chances after that. Price stopped a slap shot by Michael Grabner about 6 minutes in, and then made a glove save on Derek Stepan with 5:45 left.

On a seemingly innocuous play, Montreal forward Andrew Shaw went to chip the puck out and Girardi had a good chance to hold the blue line, with the forwards cycling deep. They could roll four lines with goal-scoring capability that created matchup nightmares for opponents. The pair has combined for just two points in the series. The Rangers made two lineup changes. Their adaptability has been a strength in this series. None of the teams’ 16 playoff series has reached a Game 7.

“Those are things that I’ll deal with”, Julien said.