Rangers 5, Canadiens 3

Neal Pionk scored the tiebreaking goal on a sensational, end-to-end rush late in the third period and Rangers rallied to beat Montreal on Tuesday night for their fourth straight win.

Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider each had a goal and an assist, Tony DeAngelo and Pavel Buchnevich also scored, and Kevin Hayes had three assists for the Rangers. Henrik Lundqvist made 31 saves.

New York trailed 3-1 early in the second period before scoring the last four goals — three in the third.

On the go-ahead goal, Pionk brought the puck from behind the Rangers net, spun around one Montreal player, skated up the left side, cut in toward the front of the Canadiens net and put it past goalie Carey Price while falling to the ice with 2:44 left.

Zibanejad capped the scoring after he brought the puck up the left side and tried to send a pass across in front. The puck defected back to him off Jeff Petry's skate and Zibanejad put it past Price with 1:48 to go.

Tomas Tatar had two goals and Max Domi also scored for Montreal, which was 7-3-1 in its last 11 games. Brendan Gallagher and Petry each had two assists, and Price stopped 27 shots.

The Rangers began their comeback late in the middle period. Just after New York's power play expired, DeAngelo tipped a shot by Hayes for his second goal with 2:15 left to make it 3-2.

New York tied the score near midway through the third. Hayes brought the puck down the right side and passed to his left to Marc Staal, who fired a shot that Price knocked down with his glove. With the puck laying on the ice, Buchnevich skated in and put it in before Price could smother it at 8:25.

The teams combined for 44 minutes of penalties, including a 10-minute misconduct on the Rangers' Cody McLeod in the second period. Montreal finished 1 for 7 on the power play, and New York was 0 for 6.

With the score tied 1-all after one period, Tatar put the Canadiens back ahead with his fifth of the season and second of the game as he tipped a pass from Philip Danault through the legs of a sprawled Lundqvist at 4:40.

Montreal then doubled its lead on a power play less than two minutes later. Domi was standing in front and got a pass from Gallagher from the left side of the goal line, slid the puck to his backhand and put it in from the right side for his ninth at 6:27 to make it 3-1.

Tatar got the Canadiens on the scoreboard 23 seconds into the game as he skated in on an odd-man rush and beat Lundqvist from the left circle. It came on the first shot of the game.

New York tied the score with 4:10 left in the opening period. Hayes skated up the left side on a rush and tried to send a pass across to Kreider, but the puck deflected off the stick of a sliding Canadiens player right back to him. Hayes then sent a pass across the front of the crease to Kreider who put it in from the right side before Price could slide back over. It was Kreider's seventh goal, and third in four games.

Blackhawks fire three-time Stanley Cup-winning coach Quenneville

Joel Quenneville knew the deal. After three Stanley Cup titles and nine playoff appearances with the Chicago Blackhawks, the longtime coach figured this was a big season for him.

"I only think we're in the winning business and we better win," Quenneville said on the first day of training camp.

Two months later, it was over.

The Blackhawks fired Quenneville on Tuesday, ending a wildly successful run that returned the franchise to the top of the NHL after years of heartache.

"We want to win," team president John McDonough said. "We want to re-win. We want our building filled and we want our fans to see an exciting brand of hockey. Sometimes, as painful as it is, you need a fresh start."

The move comes in the wake of a winless three-game trip, extending Chicago's losing streak to five in a row heading into Thursday's home game against Carolina. The power play, a persistent problem, ranked 27th in the NHL heading into Tuesday. The Blackhawks (6-6-3) also are allowing an unseemly 3.73 goals per game.

"A decision like this isn't made on one game, one play, or one specific thing," general manager Stan Bowman said. "It's sort of a collection of things. Certainly the road trip was concerning. But I think even heading into that, there were some elements to our game where they weren't where they needed to be."

Assistants Kevin Dineen and Ulf Samuelsson also were let go. Jeremy Colliton was hired as the 38th head coach in franchise history, and Barry Smith, 66, moved from Chicago's front office to the bench as an assistant coach.

Colliton goes from Chicago's American Hockey League affiliate in Rockford, Illinois, to the NHL's youngest head coach at 33. Blackhawks forward Chris Kunitz, defenseman Duncan Keith and goaltenders Corey Crawford and Cam Ward are older than Colliton, and defenseman Brent Seabrook also is 33.

"I have a huge amount of respect for Joel," Colliton said. "Those are huge shoes to fill. I won't try to fill them. I've got to be myself. And we're different people, so I'll bring different things to the table, different ideas to the table."

The 60-year-old Quenneville was the longest-tenured head coach in the NHL. He had another year left on a three-year contract extension he signed in 2016 that pays him $6 million per year, second highest in the NHL behind Mike Babcock in Toronto.

He also was the second coach fired in the past three days after the Los Angeles Kings dismissed John Stevens.

Whenever Quenneville wants to get back to work, he likely will have plenty of suitors.

The former NHL defenseman has 890 wins in 22 years as a head coach with St. Louis, Colorado and Chicago. Scotty Bowman, Stan's father and a senior adviser with the Blackhawks, is the only man with more regular-season victories.

Quenneville took over Chicago four games into the 2008-09 season, replacing Denis Savard after the Hall of Famer was let go by former general manager Dale Tallon. What followed was an unprecedented run for one of the NHL's Original Six franchises.

Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Keith and Seabrook blossomed with Quenneville behind the bench, and the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 2010, 2013 and 2015. They also made it to the conference finals in 2009 and 2014.

"He's going to be an icon in Chicago for the longest time, the great things he's done for this organization, winning three Stanley Cups, so that will never be forgotten," Kane said.

Toews said the players learned of the move Tuesday morning.

"We've had some pretty crazy highs and you remember all the good stuff, so it's tough to see a coach and a friend like Joel go," the captain said.

The pressure on Quenneville began to ramp up when Chicago was swept by Nashville in the first round of the 2017 playoffs after the Blackhawks finished with the best record in the Western Conference. Then they missed the playoffs entirely last season for the first time in a decade.

Quenneville finishes with a 452-249-96 record with Chicago. He also went 76-52 in the playoffs with the Blackhawks for the best record in franchise history.

The dismissal turns up the heat on Bowman, who has made a couple of questionable moves that helped hasten the Blackhawks' decline. He traded Artemi Panarin to Columbus and Teuvo Teravainen to Carolina in part because of salary-cap issues, and each player has put up big numbers with his new club.

"I believe in this roster, I believe in Stan," McDonough said. "Stan is meticulous, he's very thorough and when you break down free agents, when you break down trades, some work, some don't. You'd like most to go your way and over time, they may. But his body of work is excellent. I want him to succeed."