MONTREAL -- Dominic Moore took Glen Sather's advice to heart and made his NHL debut a memorable one.
Moore had three assists one day after being recalled from Hartford of the AHL, and Jamie Lundmark and Martin Rucinsky each had a goal and an assist to lead the New York Rangers to a 5-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.
"Mr. Sather said to me before the game, `There's one rule: Have fun,"' Moore said of the Rangers coach and general manager. "He's absolutely right and that's what I tried to do, and just stayed relaxed and tried to have fun out there and take it all in."
Moore got his first assist on Lundmark's goal 18:05 into the second period which put New York up 2-1.
Rucinsky scored his first goal of the season early in the third, and Moore assisted on power-play goals by Chris Simon and Dan LaCouture later in the period.
The three assists tied the Rangers' record for points in an NHL debut set by George Allen on Dec. 20, 1938, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
"Well, he had an excellent training camp," Rangers captain Mark Messier said. "Right from the first day he was one of the most fit players in camp and played well all through camp. He showed in the exhibition season that he was ready to play, and came in now when he got an opportunity and played excellent."
The Rangers became the last NHL team to score a power-play goal this season when they got one in a 4-1 win over Carolina on Thursday. New York hadn't had as many as two man-advantage goals in a game since March 1 -- a 22-game drought that dated to last season.
"Our power play, obviously, has been struggling right from the beginning of the season," Rucinsky said. "We've been working on it every day but it just couldn't click, and all of a sudden we got one our last game and we got a couple tonight. It's going to be a key to our game so we just want to make sure it's going to keep going."
Mike Dunham made 34 saves for New York, which has won two in a row and four of five.
Yanic Perreault scored on Montreal's second straight two-man advantage 6:14 into the second. The Canadiens have scored just twice in their last four games, and have lost four of five.
New York had already killed a 32-second two-man advantage when Perreault scored his fifth of the season with six seconds left in another five-on-three moments later.
Perreault got credit for the goal when his intended pass from behind the goal line to Michael Ryder in the slot was redirected into the net off the skate of New York defenseman Vladimir Malakhov.
New York's Anson Carter got his second goal in as many games with a slap shot past Jose Theodore and into the net off the right post to tie it at 9:45.
Lundmark also scored for the second straight game at 18:05, beating Theodore with a slap shot to put the Rangers up 2-1.
Rucinsky scored 3:27 into the third when he redirected Boris Mironov's pass into an open left side to put New York up by two, and Simon put away a rebound for his first goal on a power play at 11:58 to make it 4-1.
LaCouture scored his first goal on another Rangers power play just 40 seconds later at 12:38.
"It seems that when we get down a goal, we change our style," Theodore said. "It's like that every time we lose. We go out of our system and become undisciplined. That's when the other team scores."
Notes
- Rucinsky had to change sweaters and uniform numbers in the first when the bottom of his jersey tore. After leaving for the dressing room with the white sweater's red and blue piping trailing behind him, Rucinsky returned from the dressing room wearing No. 41 with no name tag.
- Theodore, who leads the NHL with three shutouts in 10 games, has allowed five or more goals in four of his starts this season, and one or less in the other six.
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