Kaapo Kaako scored a power-play goal with 24 seconds left, and the New York Rangers stopped a five-game slide by topping the Montreal Canadiens 4-3.

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.

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.

It wasn’t pretty, but the Rangers found a way to pull out a gutsy 4-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday afternoon, snapping a five-game losing streak. The Rangers’ performance against the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday was dreadful. There was no sense of urgency as the team really played without any heart.

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 […]