The Canadiens forward scored the winning goal 8:46 into the third period to lift Montreal past the New York Islanders 2-1 in front of 21,273 fans at the Bell Centre.
Ryder enters the NHL all-star break with 39 points, three ahead of Hunter, who was held pointless on Thursday. They'll meet again Saturday in the YoungStars game (CBC, 8 p.m. EST) at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.
"It was a big win tonight, we had to battle right until the end," said Ryder. "(The weekend) is going to be a lot better now."
Canadiens' Mike Ribeiro, right, celebrates his first-period goal with Richard Zednik and Saku Koivu. (CP Photo/Ryan Remiorz)
With the game tied 1-1, Ryder took a cross-ice feed from Saku Koivu and beat Isles goaltender Garth Snow with a wrister to the glove side for his 15th goal of the season.
Canadiens centre Mike Ribeiro stretched his goal-scoring streak to three games when he opened the scoring at 7:40 of the first frame. First-time all-star Sheldon Souray picked up the assist and has 35 points in 56 games. The Canadiens rearguard leads all NHL defencemen with 15 goals.
Montreal (28-20-6-2) has won three straight games and four of its last five. The Habs lead the Islanders (26-21-5-2) by five points for seventh spot in the Eastern Conference and are 12 points clear of ninth-place Buffalo, which fell 6-2 to Boston on Thursday.
"It's important for us to stay in a playoff position and push the teams below us as far away as we can," said Canadiens coach Claude Julien. "The Islanders could have been one point behind us if they won, and now they're five."
Justin Papineau scored for the Islanders, who are 2-4-2-1 in their last nine road games.
Canadiens goalie Jose Theodore made 27 saves and allowed one goal or fewer for the 11th time in his last 18 starts.
"In the third period I really liked what I saw," said Theodore, who saw only five shots over the last 20 minutes. "The way we played in the third period is the way we're going to have success and that's the way we need to play. That's where the game was won."
Montreal, which improved to 12-5-2 in its last 19 games, is 16-10-4-0 on home ice this season.
Down 1-0, the Islanders tied the game while Richard Zednik was sitting out a double minor for high-sticking. Papineau found a seam between Patrice Brisebois and Souray before beating Theodore with a backhand along the ice for his sixth of the year at 16:24 of the first.
The game remained tied after two periods despite several good chances for both teams. The Islanders' Janne Niinimaa and Mariusz Czerkawski each hit the goal post early in the period, while Montreal enjoyed three consecutive power plays to close out the period but couldn't score on the eight shots they mustered in that time.
Snow made 36 saves in the Islanders' net to even his record at 13-13-3.
Canadiens defenceman Craig Rivet missed the game after being struck in the right foot by a Pierre Dagenais slap shot in practice Wednesday. The two players dropped the gloves over the incident, but Dagenais claimed they made up afterwards. Rivet had played in 219 consecutive games.
Montreal hits the road for three games starting Tuesday in Florida against the Panthers.
with files from CP Online
