After a horrendous game at Lake Tahoe, the Flyers finally calmed down and focused on what they did best which was outshooting the opponent and taking advantage of scoring opportunities on the power play. Having Claude Giroux back on the ice didn’t hurt either. They beat the Rangers by a goal, 4-3 to improve to 9-4-3 on the season.
The Flyers Erik Gustafsson got the scoring started just after the Flyers failed to score on a power play. Gustafsson scored his first goal of the season on a slap shot that eluded the Rangers’ goalies and made the score 1-0. The Rangers evened the score on a power play goal by Chris Kreider, assisted by Adam Fox and Mike Zibanejad. With 14:13 left in the period, the Flyers got on the power play as a result of Rangers Jonny Brodzinski slashing Flyers Shayne Gostisbehere. Gostisbehere got his first goal of the season with a dirty wrist shot with 15:31 left in the period to give the Flyers a 2-1 lead. The Flyers were able to kill a man advantage late in the first period and went into intermission with a one goal lead.
This young Flyers team went on a power play with sixteen minutes left in second period on a Brendon Smith hooking penalty. James van Riemsdyk gave the Flyers a two goal lead on a nice tip in of a sweet cross ice pass. Sean Couturier and Joel Farabee got the assists. The Rangers then committed consecutive penalties, but the Flyers were unable to score on the subsequent 5-on-3 two man advantage. Moreover, the Rangers got a power play goal on a Chris Kreider tap in to cut Flyers lead to one, 3-2 with less than 12 minutes left in the period. It was Kreider’s second goal of the game. The Flyers’ Kevin Hayes then beat Rangers’ goalie Igor Shestyorkin with a shot into the upper corner of the net and the Flyers took a two goal lead into the third period.
Chris Kreider got a hat trick goal for the Rangers, which was the third one yielded by a team against the Flyers this season, and that made the score 4-3 early in the third period. Assists on the goal went to Ryan Lindgren and Colin Blackwell. Both teams had a number of opportunities to score the rest of the way, but the puck failed to hit the back of the net. The Rangers pulled their goalie with 2 minutes left in the period but really could not generate many chances, and fortunately rhe Flyers ended up with a hard fought regulation win.
Claude Giroux’s return from Covid protocol absence was a successful one as the Flyers got the win and the Captain had three assists, “Didn’t feel that great, but when you come back from a long time like that, you’re trying to keep your shifts short, keep it simple,” Claude Giroux said following the game. “You don’t want to get caught out there. It turned out good tonight.”
NEXT UP: Flyers now travel to Buffalo for a Saturday afternoon match-up (Two game series) against the 6-8-2 Sabres at 1:00 PM EST on ESPN+ and NBC Sports Philadelphia.
