It was a great night on Thursday, April 22nd in New York City at Madison Square Garden, where the Flyers were locked in from the start to finish, even using their jaws to defeat the Rangers. The Flyers scored three straight goals and hung on to win 3-2 putting a dent in the Rangers’ playoff hopes.
Just 9:55 in to the opening period, the Rangers got on board first on a great pass by K’Andre Miller to Brendan Smith near the right face off circle. Smith handled the pass nicely as he made a snap shot that went right past Brian Elliott to give the Rangers get the 1-0 lead.
With less than ten minutes left in the second period, Flyers goaltender Brian Elliott made a terrific glove save on Mika Zimbanejad when he tried to tip in the puck to make it a 2-0 goal Ranger lead.
Late in the second period, the Flyers got the game tying goal on a power play opportunity. Travis Konecny snapped a shot that hit Rangers goalie, Igor Shesterkin and deflected off James van Riemsdyk’s face and into the goal to tie the game at one, “X-ray is all good for now,” James van Riemsdyk said following the game. “I’ve been pretty lucky throughout my career with not taking a puck up high.”
With 10:29 left in the third period, the Flyers got another power play goal when Ivan Provorov smacked the puck toward the goal and James van Riemsdyk tipped it out of midair and into the goal to give the Flyers the lead at 2-1.
Less than four minutes later, the Flyers converted a 2-on-1 with Jakub Voracek putting the puck upstairs with a snap shot using Claude Giroux as a decoy “Top shelf where momma hides the cookies.” The Flyers had a 3-1 lead with less than seven minutes to go in the game.
The Rangers shaved the lead to one as Artemi Panarin shot a one timer into the Flyers net. Further pressure by the Rangers with the goalie pulled did not result in a goal and the Flyers got the win 3-2 and are now 20-18-7.
“The moose was excellent (Especially early on),” Flyers Head Coach Alain Vigneault said following the game.
NEXT UP: The Flyers have a chance to get back to back wins against the 23-18-8 New York Rangers on Friday, April 23rd at 7:00 PM EST and can be seen on NBC Sports Philadelphia.
