Flyers, Rangers Game Recap

In a game that meant much more to the Flyers than it did to the Rangers, the Rangers simply played like they wanted it more. The Rangers defeated the Flyers 5-3 in a game Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center, and in doing so finished the season 6-0 vs. the Flyers. The game was effectively over after the first period, when the Rangers took a 4-0 lead over the Flyers. While the scoreline reflected the Flyers’ trend of slow starts, this game was different.

The Flyers dominated play early and had a multitude of good chances turned away by Henrik Lundqvist early. After dominating play for the first 5 minutes of the period, the Rangers strung together two good shifts in a row. Carl Hagelin slipped, but managed to get the puck in deep to Brad Richards, who sent it on to Marian Gaborik. Gaborik found an unmarked Ryan McDonagh crashing the front of the net and he redirected it home past Ilya Bryzgalov 6:25 into the game. It was McDonagh’s 7th of the year, assisted by Gaborik and Richards.

The Flyers’ dominance of the period was over, and play was pretty back-and-forth for the next 5 minutes until the Rangers scored again. Ruslan Fedotenko found Ryan McDonagh for a shot from the high slot. Bryzgalov made the initial save on McDonagh, but left a juicy rebound out in front that big Brian Boyle deposited into the net with a backhand for his 10th goal of the season, assisted by McDonagh and Fedotenko.

In between the 2nd and 3rd goals, Jody Shelley scored a decisive knockout on Mike Rupp in a fight. It was probably a retaliation for Rupp’s disrespectful behavior during the Winter Classic, where he mocked Jaromir Jagr’s goal celebration by saluting the crowd after his 2nd period goal. Either way, the Flyers hoped it would fire up the team. They’d fallen behind 2-0 in 7 of the last 10 games, so there was still hope for a comeback. Needless to say, the fight did not work.

The Flyers had a few chances in the period, most notably Claude Giroux fanning on an open net, but Lundqvist kept the Flyers at bay. The Rangers went on the power play with 3 ½ minutes left in the period, and with 25 seconds left in the power play they scored again. On the rush up on the PP, Dan Girardi found Artem Anisimov streaking through the defense, and Anisimov converted on the breakaway chance for his 15th goal, assisted by Brandon Dubinsky and Girardi.

Just 30 seconds later, the Rangers struck again. After a hooking penalty on Marc-Andre Bourdon and a double minor high sticking call on Pavel Kubina, the Rangers had an extended 5-on-3 PP, which they made use of. Ryan Callahan deposited a rebound off a Brad Richards blast from the left faceoff circle past Bryzgalov for his 29th goal of the season, assisted by Richards and Stepan.

The Flyers outshot the Rangers 13-11 in the first period, but the Rangers scored 4 goals on their 11 shots while the Flyers didn’t manage any. None of the goals were specifically Bryzgalov’s fault, but Lundqvist bailed out his defense when it gave up chances while Bryzgalov could not.

In the second period, the Flyers finally got one back 7 minutes in as Jake Voracek deposited his 18th on a rebound opportunity. Kimmo Timonen and Claude Giroux added assists on the play.

The Flyers had numerous opportunities to narrow the gap the rest of the period, but Lundqvist weathered each storm. Then, on the power play again with under a minute left, Marion Gaborik took a pass on the power play from Anton Stralman in the high slot and beat Bryzgalov over his glove for his 41st goal of the season, with assists coming from Stralman and Marc Staal.

The Flyers got one back 40 seconds later, as Wayne Simmonds scored a power play goal of his own with 7 seconds left in the period.

Lundqvist left a juicy rebound off of a Claude Giroux slapper and Simmonds tapped it in for his 28th, with the assists by Giroux and Voracek.

The Flyers outshot the Rangers 13-8, but could only close the gap by 1, making the score 5-2. In the end, they left themselves too much of a deficit to overcome.

With 9 minutes left in the game, Scott Hartnell got a small piece of an Andreas Lilja wrister and it beat Lundqvist to cut the margin to 5-3. It was Hartnell’s 37th, with the assists coming from Lilja and Giroux. The Flyers had no shortage of opportunities in the period, as they outshot New York 14-5, but Lundqvist stymied them for the remainder of the tilt. For the game, the Flyers outshot the Rangers 40-24. In many ways, it was the opposite of the game Sunday, where they were heavily outshot but managed to make their opportunities count in a 6-4 win over the Penguins.

There were two main keys to the loss for the Flyers: special teams and goaltending. The Rangers went 3-6 on the power play, while the Flyers went just 1-8 on the power play. The failures on the power play were a combination of poor puck movement and stellar goaltending by Lundqvist. The failures on the penalty kill were mainly caused by poor play in their own end. The Rangers had a bevy of chances, and Bryzgalov, while he could have played better, can’t be faulted for the special teams goals. Overall, goaltending again proved to be the difference: Lundqvist raised his game when the stakes were highest against an Atlantic Division rival, while Bryzgalov couldn’t bail out his team’s sluggish defense. With the win, the Rangers clinched the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference for the first time since 1993-1994, when they went on to win the Stanley Cup. The Flyers fell 3 points behind the Penguins for the 4 seed and home ice advantage in the first round, as the Penguins defeated the Bruins 5-3 behind Sidney Crosby’s 2 goals and 1 assist. The Flyers have 2 games remaining, vs. Buffalo and at Pittsburgh, while the Penguins have games vs. the Rangers and Flyers left.