March is the time every team in the National Hockey League wants to get hot. The Montreal Canadiens are heating up along with the weather.

It’s nothing new for a franchise that shocked the Stanley Cup playoffs last season by winning two Game 7s on the road against powerhouses Washington and Pittsburgh … as the eighth and final seed from the Eastern Conference.

Montreal’s not kicking around the bottom of the playoff pool this spring, thanks in big part to a March during which the Canadiens have won seven of 10 games. The surge has brought Montreal within one scant point of the Boston Bruins in the Northeast Division. Sitting sixth in the conference standings with 86 points, sliding ahead of Boston and winning the division would be huge for Montreal.

If the playoffs started today, the Bruins and Canadiens would face off, but Boston would have the home-ice advantage. That shouldn’t faze Montreal if that scenario plays out this spring, considering the Canadiens’ shocking run to the Eastern Conference finals last spring as the eighth seed.

Montreal opened March with four victories in a row and are one of just four Eastern Conference teams with 40 victories. The Canadiens can take a big step toward winning the Northeast on Thursday when Montreal plays at Boston. Washington, second in the East, comes to Montreal on Saturday.

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The only difference for the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday was the length of time spent on the ice.

For the first time in the past five games, Montreal avoid going to overtime. The Habs did win again, downing the Rangers 2-1 in New York City for their fourth victory in the past five games.

Montreal got the tie-breaking goal from Benoit Pouliot at the 6:03 mark of the third as Montreal capped a rally from a 1-0 deficit. New York scored first on Brandon Dubinsky’s 17th of the season just 4:15 into the contest.

Down 1-0 after a period, Montreal tied the game on Jaroslav Spacek’s second goal of the season with just 1:11 left before intermission. That set the stage of Pouliot’s go-ahead goal in the third.

Alex Auld stopped 25 of 26 shots for the Canadiens. Henrik Lundqvist was almost as good for the Rangers, making 36 saves.

The Canadiens are tied with Atlanta for seventh in the Eastern Conference with 51 points, two points behind the sixth-place Rangers.

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Two Game 7 victories, on the road no less. A stunning run from just squeezing into the dance party to turning the dance floor upside down.

The Montreal Canadiens put together quite a run in last spring’s Stanley Cup playoffs. The eighth and final seed in the Eastern Conference, Les Habs knocked off President’s Trophy winner Washington and defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh, capping both upsets with victories in Game 7 on the road.

The run ended with a loss to Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference finals. Still, the Canadiens look to build on that successful spring in 2010-11.

Gone is goaltender Jaroslav Halak, the pending free agent dealt to St. Louis during the summer. He won nine games in the playoffs, including those two aforementioned Game 7s. Leader scorer Tomas Plekanec will be back, signing a six-year deal in the offseason for Montreal.

The Canadiens open the season at Toronto on Oct. 7. Montreal plays host to Tampa Bay in the home opener Oct. 13.

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The 88 points accumulated by the Montreal Canadiens in 2009-10 represented the franchise’s lowest total since 2002-03.

But as we’ve seen many times, if you can get into the playoffs, the slate gets wiped clean.

Montreal did just that in this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs, qualifying as the eighth seed, then turning the bracket inside-out. The Canadiens won Game 7’s on the road against the two top threats in the East, Washington and Pittsburgh, advancing to the conference finals before falling to Philadelphia in five games.

The Canadiens’ magic ride ended short of the Stanley Cup, but it’s again a testament to what can happen when a team gets hot at the right time. Montreal just squeaked into the playoffs as the final seed in the East, holding off four other teams fighting for a ticket to the postseason.

And maybe that’s part of the reason why the Habs were able to upend the Caps and Pens once the playoffs started. Having to fight for their lives for the final few weeks of the season gave Montreal an edge, and they hit the postseason accustomed to playing playoff-type games.

Of course, Montreal fell behind 3-1 to Washington in the opening round before finding a way to win three straight, including two wins at Washington. Wins in the final two games of the Pittsburgh series gave the Habs a 5-0 record in elimination games against the two giants of the East.

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