NEW YORK – Much like the way a player needs to learn how to win, a team needs to develop a winning attitude over time.

This season, you could see the slow process unfolding for the Rangers as they first won with the lead and now they have started to gain points after being down in the third period.

After coming back against the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday, the Blueshirts did it again last night against the Montreal Canadiens after Chris Drury tied with around six minutes left in the third and then Brendan Shanahan won it 1:06 into overtime to give the Rangers a 4-3 win.

“If anything that is just a positive whether it was coming back or starting with a lead and keeping it,” said Sean Avery. “That’s just adversity and it’s coming together here. It’s looking pretty good.”

Part of the reason the Rangers were able to come back is that they stuck to the game plan, still playing defensive hockey with their top lines on the ice in the third.

“It’s really important to [play our defensive system], but also have success to doing that,” said Shanahan, who moved into sole possession of 11th place on the all time scoring list with his 641st goal. “We are getting there. You need to [come back] a lot to have that kind of maturity, but these are games we definitely have to build on.”

No one could blame the Rangers for not being 100 percent in this game. With a win in Toronto the night before, the Blueshirts may have been tired. And after a second period when the team only managed one shot and gave up the 3-1 lead, the game looked like it was going downhill.

“We referred to the Carolina win in here during the second intermission,” Drury said. “We were on a mission here. There are a lot of good teams. You have to find ways to win.”

Running with just two lines in the third, Drury was able to bring the Rangers back when he put in a rebound of an Avery shot past Cristobal Huet to tie the game.

The goal came minutes after a Fedor Tyutin shot hit the crossbar and then the right post. It was called a goal, but after a Toronto review, it was waived off.

“It was such a hard shot, I thought it went in,” said Avery. “Just because of the angle and sound it made with three different posts.”

Yet, it was Shanahan, who was the ultimate hero with his tally in overtime, which put the Rangers one point behind the Devils for the Atlantic Division lead.

“Overtime goals are always exciting and fun,” Shanahan said. “You feel like the popular kid in school for a day.”

And that win allowed the Blueshirts to close out 2007 with three wins in a row, before opening up 2008 with their Western Canadian road trip.

“It's a great feeling," Shanahan said. "It means we can enjoy New Year's. We wanted to start putting some wins together and this was a good hockey team we beat tonight."