The Philadelphia Flyers not only won a shootout, but they finally scored a shootout goal as they were 0-16 going into Sunday’s tilt. After blowing a 3-0 lead in the third period to the New York Rangers, the Flyers barely escaped the Big Apple with a shootout win as they snapped their four-game losing streak. Owen Tippett scored his first as a Flyer, Martin Jones made 43 saves including all 3 in the shootout, the Flyers successfully killed off 3 Rangers penalty, and even though the Rangers scored 2 goals in 12 seconds to tie the game up, it was Philadelphia who had the last laugh.
Coming off another disappointing loss on Saturday to the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Flyers had to head down to Madison Square Garden and face Vezina Trophy-candidate Igor Shesterkin and the Rangers. Nick Seeler left the game in the third period and didn’t return, so in his stead came Kevin Connauton rather than Keith Yandle. Zack MacEwen wasn’t in the lineup either after hurting himself in his final-minute tilt against Wayne Simmonds. Hayden Hodgson returned to the lineup in his place and Martin Jones took the second game of the back to back.
FIRST PERIOD
The Rangers had the early chances, right off the bat as well, with several chances off turnovers but Martin Jones was able to steer them away. Those saves helped the Flyers settle in and score the game’s first goal as Cam York’s blast from the point fluttered and fooled Shesterkin 5:54 into the game. Nate Thompson won the face-off after the Rangers iced the puck and York one-time-blasted a bouncing puck over the glove of the Russian netminder.
50 seconds after York’s 3rd goal of the season, Owen Tippett scored his first goal as a Philadelphia Flyer. Alexis Lafreniere had a great scoring chance right after the Flyers took the lead but Martin Jones came up big again. James van Riemsdyk corralled the rebound and tried sending an outlet pass to Kevin Hayes out of the zone. Hayes couldn’t get to the puck but he ended up stealing it from Jacob Trouba, entered the zone with speed, and then dropped it off to Owen Tippett. His initial attempt was actually a pass back to Hayes but it hit a Ranger defenseman, bounced back to the forward as he finished it off with a wrist shot low-glove side.
The Flyers almost made it 3-0 on the next shift with Hayden Hodgson finding himself on a breakaway but Shesterkin robbed him with a pad save.
Coming out of the first commercial break, the Rangers were inches away at cutting into the deficit as Filip Chytil’s backhand hit the post, and then the puck bounced out to K’Andre Miller who had an empty net to shoot at, but Cam Atkinson saved the day with a huge block. He stayed on for the rest of the shift after Jones swallowed up a Miller point shot but wobbled to the bench.
Both teams traded scoring chances in the final 6 minutes of the period but both goalies were up to task. Martin Jones had to fend off 13 Ranger shots on top of several scoring chances that missed the net high and wide. Shesterkin looked shaky to start the game but made a few big saves to keep the game at 2-0, including a late save on Kevin Hayes. The Flyers fired 8 shots with 7 of them being scoring chances.
SECOND PERIOD
The Rangers came back onto the ice firing at will, looking to score their first goal since their overtime win 2 games ago. They threw 6 shots in the first 4 minutes with the Flyers sagging back into their zone, letting the Rangers skate in with ease. The first shot for the Flyers came off the stick of Owen Tippett who found himself on a breakaway after a great outlet pass by Kevin Hayes. Shesterkin made a huge pad save, which allowed the Rangers to transition on their own odd man rush with Kreider looking for his 47th goal. Jones had to come up big on that opportunity as well as another odd-man rush with Panarin involved only a few minutes later. The Flyers continued to turn the puck over, as they did last night, trying to make outlet passes from their own zone rather than skating it out.
With the Rangers buzzing and skating circles around the Flyers, James van Riemsdyk was called for a tripping penalty in the offensive zone, which brought out the second-ranked power play unit in the NHL. The Rangers had their chances, and the Flyers even collapsed in front of Jones a few times, allowing players like Panarin or Zibanejad way too much room to operate with. However, the Flyers killed it off and shortly after Tippett found himself on yet another breakaway and this time he attempted a deke but Shesterkin came up big again to keep the deficit at two.
The Rangers kept creating chance after chance, rush after rush, and forcing turnover after turnover but their shots were all being swallowed up by Martin Jones. The Flyers looked to have jumped on an odd-man rush but the referees decided to call a late penalty on Hayden Hodgson for a hold, giving the Rangers power play another opportunity with only 3:51 left in the period. The Rangers fired four shots on goal but the Flyers survived to tell the tale as they headed into the third period with a 2-0 lead even though they were being outshot 32-16.
THIRD PERIOD
The first minute and a half of the third period saw both teams score goals. The Flyers started the third period scoring with Joel Farabee finishing off a great play by Travis Sanheim. Oskar Lindblom maintained patience in the neutral zone, which opened up a lot of ice for the streaking Sanheim. He made a bunch of fancy moves, fooled Shesterkin by making him think he was gonna take the shot, but instead passed it Farabee who the easy dunk-in goal.
38 seconds later, the Rangers got on the board and ended their 101:22 goalless drought thanks to Artemi Panarin’s deflection goal. Atkinson’s pass for Konecny was just out of his reach and the Rangers were able to quickly transition from defense to offense and as they entered the zone, the defense played pitch-and-catch before Trouba’s point shot was deflected by Panarin in front of the net.
The Flyers then found themselves on back to back power plays after the Rangers cut the deficit back to two, but weren’t able to do much with their opportunities. In fact, the Rangers had consecutive odd-man rushes, one that Jones had to shoulder off and one that went just wide. The Flyers had a few chances of their own near the end of the man advantage as Kevin Hayes’ one-time attempt was flubbed and then Ristolainen and Atkinson had consecutive chances stopped by the pad.
With a little over four minutes remaining in regulation the Rangers cut the deficit to one and then tied the game with 2 goals in a span of 12 seconds. The second goal came off of a Rasmus Ristolainen turnover and Flyer-killer Mika Zibanejad pounced on a juicy rebound to cut the deficit to one. Ristolainen caught a loose puck but lost it as he dropped it back onto the ice and Frank Vatrano’s initial shot was stopped but Zibanejad was there for the rebound.
12 seconds later, Andrew Copp deflected a perfect saucer pass from Panarin over the pad of Jones. Things got worse as the Flyers were then called for a tripping penalty, giving the momentum-gaining Rangers a chance to take the lead in regulation. They killed it off and survived the rest of the period as they headed towards overtime.
OVERTIME
Overtime was tipping in favour of the Rangers, who controlled the puck and were skating circles around the tired Flyers. Frost had 2 great scoring chances, one set up by Tippett, another one where he just danced around the defense but was stopped by the arm of Shesterkin. With 33 seconds left, Travis Sanheim, who was on the ice for a minute and a half, was clipped in the face by Kreider, sending them on a power play with little time remaining. Kevin Hayes played the power play a little too slow and the Flyers weren’t able to garner a shot on goal as they headed to a shootout.
Round 1
Cam Atkinson: Miss
Mike Zibanejad: Miss
Round 2
Owen Tippett: Miss
Artemi Panarin: Miss
Round 3:
Kevin Hayes: Goal
Filip Chytil: Miss
Hayes lasered one high on Shesterkin and the Flyers would finally win in a shootout.
UP NEXT
The Flyers host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night at Wells Fargo Center in the first leg of a home-and-home with Columbus.
