The Philadelphia Flyers secured their second straight victory after taking down the New York Rangers by a score of 3-1.
With the win, the Flyers are now tied with the Rangers in points at 25, despite New York holding a two-game advantage. The Rangers have now lost five games in a row and have slumped to the tune of 12-9-1 on the season.
The Flyers came out buzzing today with two goals in the first 4 minutes of the game from Bobby Brink and Travis Konecny. They outshot the Rangers 15-4 in the first period but Igor Shesterkin did everything in his power from letting this game slip away early. He wound up making 32 saves in the losing effort.
Vincent Trocheck got the Rangers on the board midway through the second period but Ivan Fedotov matched his fellow countryman with a 23-save performance for his fourth win of the season. Konecny iced the game with an empty-netter in the third.
After a scrappy comeback victory in their last game against Nashville, the Flyers returned home for their Black Friday matinee against the Rangers.
For the third straight contest, the Flyers kept their lineup largely intact with the lone change coming in goal as Ivan Fedotov returned between the pipes for his ninth start of the season. The hulking Russian entered the contest with a 3-4-1 record, a 3.69 GAA, and a .874 SV% and was looking for his first win in three contests after winning his previous three before that.
As for the Rangers, they came into today’s game running under a 4-game losing streak and a 12-8-1 record overall. Offensively, Artemi Panarin remained atop with 12 goals and 26 points but after that it was a drop to Will Cuylle with 9 goals and 18 points and Adam Fox with 18 assists.
Mika Zibanejad has struggled to begin the season, at least compared to the standards that were expected, with just 4 goals and 15 point. Vincent Trocheck had 4 goals and 10 points, and Chris Kreider had just 9 goals and 0 assists entering today. All players have fantastic numbers against the Flyers in their career, albeit Kreider was out today with an injury.
Igor Shesterkin earned the start as per usual when these two teams face off as he looked to improve onto his 8-7-1 record, 2.98 GAA, and .911 SV%.
FIRST PERIOD
At the 3:14 mark of the first period, Bobby Brink opened the scoring after a great play from Tyson Foerster to set it up. Foerster blocked a shot in the defensive zone and chased and tracked down the puck before feeding Brink, who then roofed it over Igor Shesterkin for his 4th of the season.
1:10 later, Travis Konecny extended the lead to 2-0 after he finished off his mini-breakaway attempt through Shesterkin’s wickets. Rasmus Ristolainen got the puck out of the zone to Sean Couturier who then found Konecny streaking into the zone. He made a move on his defender before finishing the play for his 12th of the season.
The Flyers had their skating legs early, registering the first 10 shots on goal through the first 11 minutes of the game. Shesterkin was doing everything in his power to keep the game at 2-0 despite the Flyers peppering him with high danger chances.
The period came to a close with the Flyers up 2-0 on the scoreboard and 15-4 on the shot-clock.
SECOND PERIOD
With 9:40 remaining in the middle frame, the Rangers were able to take advantage of some tired bodies and turnovers, as Vincent Trocheck was able to wire a shot from the slot over Ivan Fedotov’s blocker for his 5th of the season. Shesterkin had done a tremendous job at keeping the Flyers at bay with 5-6 big saves leading up to the goal.
The period came to a close with the Rangers picking things back up, despite the shot totals still favouring the Flyers by nearly double (27-14). Philadelphia were still peppering Shesterkin with grade-A chances but he had all the answers as he – and he alone – kept this game from getting out of hand in the first 40 minutes.
THIRD PERIOD
The first penalty of the game was called at the 6:20 mark of the third period with Reilly Smith getting the gate for a holding minor. The 2nd-ranked penalty kill of the Rangers looked the part as they kept the Flyers to just one shot on goal and not much else.
With just under 3 minutes remaining, the Rangers pulled Shesterkin for the extra attacker and they almost tied it immediately but Mika Zibanejad’s wide open attempt went wide of the net.
With 27 seconds left in regulation, Konecny scored his second of the day into the empty net after a fortuitous bounce from Travis Sanheim’s clear. His clearance from below the goal line bounced off the wall and into the middle of the ice and right to Konecny, who was essentially all alone with a yawning cage in front of him.
UP NEXT
The Flyers have a quick turnaround and head to St. Louis on Saturday night (7:00pm; NBCSP) to take on the Blues.
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