MONTREAL (AFP) - Captain Saku Koivu scored shootout winner as the Montreal Canadiens overcame a five-goal deficit to defeat the New York Rangers 6-5 on Tuesday.

France's Cristobal Huet, who came on in relief of rookie Carey Price, finished with 20 saves and stopped Brendan Shanahan, Chris Drury and captain Jaromir Jagr in the shootout.

It was the first time in Montreal's storied history that it rallied from a five-goal deficit to win a game.

"This is the type of game that you build some momentum and some confidence after the season," Koivu said. "When you look at the turning points I'm sure that this will be one of them."

After the Rangers rolled to a 5-0 lead in the second period, Michael Ryder and Alexei Kovalev tallied twice apiece and defenceman Mark Streit also scored to level the game for the Canadiens.

Shanahan scored two goals and now has 20 tallies on the season for the 19th consecutive campaign. Jagr finished with four assists.

Brandon Dubinsky and Sean Avery scored 14 seconds apart and Drury also tallied for the Rangers, who saw their modest two-game winning come to an end.

"It's not an easy game for us to lose, no question about that," New York coach Tom Renney said. "I'm not going to suggest that we're OK with this - we're not, we're mad, we're (angry).

After Drury gave New York a 5-0 lead just 28 seconds later, Ryder scored twice in a span of 4:24 as the Canadiens began to chip away.

Kovalev and Streit scored nine seconds apart in the third period, before Kovalev tallied with 4:22 remaining in the third to tie the game at 5-5.

"It's tough to really explain what happened tonight," Kovalev said. "It was unbelievable, we showed a lot of character and surprised a lot of people."