On the verge of a big regulation victory over the rival New York Rangers, the Philadelphia Flyers let the win slip away with only seconds remaining.
Keith Yandle blasted a shot past Steve Mason with only 12.9 seconds left to tie the contest, and the Rangers ended up earning the win via a shootout, taking the game by a score of 3-2. Mats Zuccarello and Derek Stepan scored for New York in the skills competition, while both Sam Gagner and Claude Giroux failed to best Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. Flyers goalie Steve Mason made 26 saves on 28 shots in the loss.
With a sizable Rangers contingent in the crowd, the dueling chants began the moment the puck was dropped. It would only take ten minutes for the play on the ice to match the vitriol in the stands. In a scrum, Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh cross-checked Wayne Simmonds in the face, and Simmonds responded by dropping McDonagh with a punch to the head. McDonagh hit the ice and Simmonds hit the showers, as the officials dished out a match penalty to the Flyers’ power forward.
Simmonds and the Flyers’ bench were clearly livid with the call (Simmonds snapped his stick in half before leaving), but the team was forced to deal with the consequences of the officials’ decision regardless. And after successfully killing off the one minute of penalty time (McDonagh received four minutes compared to Simmonds’ five), Philadelphia took full control of the contest. Shift after shift saw the Flyers blasting away at Henrik Lundqvist, as the Rangers scrambled to respond. Only the heroics of “The King” kept the game scoreless after one, as Philadelphia entered the locker room in control of the tempo of the game but missing one of their best forwards.
The second period was more of the same, but this time the Flyers would be rewarded. They outshot the shell-shocked Rangers 20-8 in the period, aided by three power play opportunities. Shayne Gostisbehere would cash in on the second of those power plays, wristing a shot from the point past Lundqvist with the help of a Ryan White screen in front. Even strength was all Philadelphia as well, as the Flyers won all the counting stats battles – shots on goal, shot attempts, scoring chances – and kept New York off the scoreboard. The period ended with the Flyers up 1-0, with the only negative being the knowledge that their lead could have been far larger considering the degree of domination from the orange and black.
The Rangers quickly proved just how risky it was to allow them to stay in the game. Less than four minutes into the third period, Chris Kreider deflected a shot from Dan Girardi past Mason to tie the score at one-apiece. But Shayne Gostisbehere had no interest in allowing the Rangers to take a lead in regulation. Only two minutes later, he darted up ice and found Ryan White for a one-timer that fooled Lundqvist and gave Philadelphia back the advantage, 2-1. But Yandle’s late game heroics would send the contest to overtime and the shootout, where the Rangers eventually prevailed.
Questions to Answer:
- So how does the sans-Couturier forward group hold up, anyways? Even without Wayne Simmonds, they carried play for the game’s first two periods. But they were unable to finish on a number of their chances, and seemed to tire late.
- Nick Cousins is back with the team. Does he do anything of note? Drew two penalties and made a number of slick offensive plays in limited ice time. A solid performance from Cousins.
- Seven trips to the penalty kill on Thursday night against Nashville. Seven. They’ll do better than that today, yeah? Significantly better. The Rangers only received three minutes of power play time, mostly the result of puck possession dominance by the Flyers at even strength.
- Shayne Gostisbehere has a point or more in six straight games. That’s not really a question, but I think it would be cool if he extended that streak today. Don’t you agree? He did, and it indeed was cool.
- Henrik Lundqvist: still ugly? The ugliest.
Comment of the Night:
anyone else
see on Gostisbehere’s wiki page he is mentioned as “a legendary american professional ice hockey player”?
if wikipedia changes that i’ll be pissed
— MJenkinsBeard27
