Jaroslav Halak got the start against his former team, and in the first period they Canadiens did not test him much. In fact, the Habs only mustered four shots on goal in the period. The issue is that the Rangers only managed six of their own, and only a late period partial breakaway by Julien Gauthier could be considered a quality chance. Both teams were pretty sleepy.
The second period started with similarly boring–err, low-event–hockey, but in the middle act, the Rangers took over. It started on a Canadiens powerplay. Halak made a big save on Evgenii Dadonov, and on the ensuing play, Chris Kreider picked off a weak backpass and he was off to the races.