The Rangers scored four unanswered goals in the first period and went on to win Friday night, 6-3, over the Montreal Canadiens.

But the biggest story of the game was the scare that Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist got when he was run over by Benoit Pouliot near the end of the game. Lundqvist fell back into his net — hard — and his head snapped back. Pouliot went off for two minutes for goalie interference. While Lundqvist did finish the rest of the game, he did admit after the game that his neck gradually became more stiff.

My head was leaning forward and I took a pretty hard hit there. But we checked everything, X-rays were good, it’s just that my neck is very stiff and sore. We’ll see how it is when I wake up tomorrow, but I’m sure it will be sore for several days.

It was a damper of an ending to an otherwise spirited game, which began with a lengthy bout between Brandon Prust and Travis Moen at the drop of the puck, setting the tone for the rest of the game.

Artem Anisimov opened the scoring, the first of five goals in the first. Montreal was able to the deficit to 5-3, but Vinny Prospal’s power-play goal added the extra cushion.

With the win, the Rangers narrowed the gap in the standings, now five points back of Montreal. Here’s how the standings look after all the games:

The Rangers travel to Pittsburgh for their next game, with face off set for 12:30 p.m. in Pittsburgh, for NBC’s Game of the Week.