New York Rangers vs Montreal Canadiens Match Player Stats On Dec 01, 2018

Shea Weber and Artturi Lehkonen both scored a pair of goals as the host Montreal Canadiens staked a four-goal lead and went on to beat the New York Rangers 5-2 Saturday night.

Carey Price stopped 20 shots to backstop the Canadiens to their first victory in six games.

Weber, playing just his second game of the season after missing the first 24 due to a knee injury which cost him nearly a calendar year, opened the scoring at the 3:53 mark of the first period with one of his patented point-shot blasts. Weber unloaded a one-timer set up by Jonathan Drouin for his first tally of the year and first since Dec. 5, 2017.

Weber did not have to wait nearly as long to light the lamp again, as he doubled the lead with just 7.2 seconds left in the period. He created a turnover in his own zone, raced up ice to join the rush, took a feed from Tomas Tatar -- who was prone on the ice while he made a cross-ice pass -- and snapped a top-shelf goal.

Lehkonen made it 3-0 at 2:04 of the second period when he elected to shoot on a three-on-one rush, firing a short-side snapper, and then added another at 5:29 by intercepting an ill-advised clearing attempt and then instantly ripping home his fourth goal of the season.

Jimmy Vesey put the Rangers on the board at 8:10 of the middle frame when he took a feed in the high slot and fired a glove-side puck past Price, and then Vesey set up Ryan Strome's power-play goal at 14:11 of the second period, an easy tap-in created on an odd-man rush.

But New York's comeback hopes were dashed when Tatar scored on the power play just past the midway point of the third period.

Goalie Alexandar Georgiev made 37 saves for the Rangers, who have just one win in five outings. Mika Zibanejad collected a pair of assists for New York.

--Field Level Media