MONTREAL — As is the case with the Rangers season as a whole, it’s not about how you start but how you finish.

The Blueshirts recovered from a sluggish opening five minutes to take a 4-3 win over the Canadiens on Saturday night, snapping a three-game losing skid as they head back to Madison Square Garden for a two-game home stand.

A three-goal third period and a strong showing from their marquee players propelled the Rangers to victory, which was a welcomed development after the team was limited to a single goal in their previous three losses.

“I thought it was a real gutsy effort by the guys,” head coach Mike Sullivan said after the win, which improved the Rangers to 3-3-1. “When you go through some of the early adversity that we’ve gone through here, I said to them after the game, ‘That game could’ve gone south fast.’ We get down two early like that, given the circumstances that we’ve gone through the last week or so, I just give the players a lot of credit. You learn about your group when you go through experiences like this. What we learned is that we’ve got a high character group in there.

“There’s a certain resilience to them that I think is admirable and necessary to win in this league. Couldn’t be more proud of them.”

J.T. Miller (8) celebrates his goal with teammates Alexis Lafrenière (13) and Mika Zibanejad (93) during the third period of the Rangers’ 4-3 road win over the Canadiens on Oct. 18, 2025. NHLI via Getty Images

Mika Zibanejad finally broke through on the power play in the first frame, after the Swede generated some of the Rangers best chances over their last few games.

Artemi Panarin notched his first goal of the season in the third period, when the star Russian wing ripped what was ultimately the game-winning goal into the back of the net in transition.

Rangers captain J.T. Miller was the one to get the Rangers offensive burst in the third started.

Even rookie Matthew Robertson got in on the action with his first NHL goal and point.

Matthew Robertson celebrates with teammates after scoring a third-period goal in the Rangers’ road win over the Canadiens. NHLI via Getty Images

“That feel like [my] first goal in life,” Panarin said. “I was so happy. Mika made an unbelievable pass for me. I missed five before and then finally.”

It was as if the Rangers blinked and they were trailing 2-0 Saturday night.

The Canadiens needed all of three minutes and 42 seconds to build the two-goal lead, which was fueled by their speed, energy and quick puck decisions. A bad bounce off of Robertson, who was attempting to keep the puck in the offensive zone, led to a Juraj Slafkovský goal just over a minute and a half into the game.

Juraj Slafkovský (20) scores a goal on Jonathan Quick during the first period of the Rangers’ road win over the Canadiens. NHLI via Getty Images

Mika Zibanejad (not pictured) scores a goal on Sam Montembeault (35) during the first period of the Rangers’ road win over the Canadiens. Eric Bolte-Imagn Images

Charged with two early penalties, the Rangers gave up a power-play goal on their very first penalty kill of the night. Nick Suzuki cashed in on a wide-open net after a circle-to-circle feed from Ivan Demidov.

The Rangers hadn’t even registered a single shot on goal yet.

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“It was really easy just to kind of feel sorry for ourselves for the past few games,” Zibanejad said. “I feel like because we’ve been getting our looks, just because we’ve been playing the way we’ve been playing, I think there’s a belief in this group that we’re right there.”