It’s been a week and a half since the Flyers last played a game due to Covid 19 issues, but that changed Thursday night when the puck was flying around inside of the Wells Fargo Center in snowy Philadelphia.
The Flyers got off to a great start as Nicloas Aubé-Kubel got a great look in the crease and scored assisted by Michael Raffl and Kevin Hayes. The Flyers could not capitalize on two power plays in the first period. The Rangers had a 5-on-3 power play with about two minutes left in the period on simultaneous penalties by Andy Andreoff and Robert Hägg. Fortunately for the Flyers, the two man advantage was cut short when Chris Kreider took a hooking penalty and the Rangers failed to score.
One minute and 32 seconds into the second period, Kevin Hayes went to box for two minutes for tripping Rangers Kevin Rooney. The Rangers scored on the ensuing power play on a wrist hand shot by Colin Blackwell that went through Carter Hart’s legs to tie the game at 1. Both teams could not score on power plays in the second period. Ivan Provorov slashed Pavel Buchnevich on a partial breakaway late in the second period. Carter Hart made an excellent glove save on the play, but Buchnevich was awarded a penalty shot. Hart made another great save on Buchnevich on the penalty shot and the game went to the third period tied at 1.
The Rangers went ahead 2-1 when Brendan Smith scored off a slick back handed pass by Artemi Panarin. It was Smith’s first goal of the season. The Flyers pulled the goalie late in the third. The Flyers controlled the play in the Rangers end and Sean Couturier threw the puck off the boards behind the net and Joel Farabee pounced on the loose puck and put it in the net to tie the game.
Thanks to Joel Farabee, the Rangers and Flyers went in to overtime. Nolan Patrick took a penalty at 2:22 in to overtime, but the Flyers were able to kill the 4-on-3 power play and the game went to a shootout. The Rangers won the shootout 2-1 as Kaapo Kakko and Artemi Panarin scored for the Rangers. The Flyers are now 8-3-3.
NEXT UP: The Flyers travel to Lake Tahoe to take on the 10-3-2 Boston Bruins on Sunday, February 18th at 2:00pm EST on NBC and NBC Sports Philadelphia.
