NEW YORK -- Kaapo Kakko scored a power-play goal with 24 seconds remaining, and the New York Rangers ended a five-game losing streak by defeating the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

The Canadiens trailed 3-1 after two periods. But Cole Caufield scored his 14th goal 4:16 into the third and Nick Suzuki tied it at 14:07. Trocheck tipped the puck past Montreal goaltender Sam Montembeault at 19:56 to put New York ahead after Panarin and Montreal’s Mike Matheson scored earlier in the first.

It’s been a whirlwind of a week for the Rangers, who had descended into a state of unrest amid a five-game losing streak that set off a siren throughout the organization.

Captain Jacob Trouba, who has struggled of late and recently heard his name in trade rumors for the second time in six months, fought Montreal’s Josh Anderson early in Saturday’s game. The Canadiens presumably wanted New York’s captain to answer the bell for a hit he made earlier this season on Justin Barron, and he obliged.

The Rangers, starting a five-game homestand, were boosted by the return to the lineup of injured forwards Chris Kreider, who had missed three games with back spasms, and Filip Chytil, who’d missed seven games with an upper body injury that was deemed not to be a concussion.

Kaapo Kakko scored the tiebreaking goal during a four-minute power play with 23 seconds left as the New York Rangers ended their first five-game losing streak in over three years with a 4-3 victory over the visiting Montreal Canadiens on Saturday afternoon.

The New York Rangers’ 1,700th home victory since entering the NHL in 1926 wasn’t pretty. But Kaapo Kakko’s power-play goal […]