Rangers jump all over Flyers
THE FLYERS came into Madison Square Garden as one of the hottest teams in hockey, but ran into a team that’s been sizzling in its own right and a goaltender who’s rediscovered his edge.
The Rangers, who have won eight of their last 13, dominated their rivals, 4-1, on Sunday night, leapfrogging Philadelphia to tie Washington (22-16-7) for second place in the Metropolitan Division. Henrik Lundqvist was brilliant between the pipes, making 37 saves.
“The way we started the game helped everyone in here. We got the crowd going and we got ourselves going,” Lundqvist said as the Rangers led 2-0 after 2:42 of play. “We talked about it going into this game that they played (yesterday, a 6-3 loss to the Lightning in Philly), so we wanted to come out and really set the tone and the early goals helped us. Even though they had a really strong first period, we kept making good decisions and took over the momentum for sure in the second period. Overall it was a really good effort.”
The Blueshirts (24-20-3) were all over the Flyers (23-19-4) from the start with three goals in the opening period. Daniel Carcillo struck first against his former team for his first goal as a Ranger at 2:14, followed by a quick wrister from the slot by Rick Nash just 28 seconds later. Next it was Derick Brassard, who connected on a blistering one-timer near the left faceoff circle at 9:24 to give the Rangers a 3-0 edge after one despite the Flyers outshooting them 17-13.
“We just came after them right away, we had some good shifts,” Brassard said. “Danny (Carcillo) was playing with a lot of energy out there and he got us a big goal.”
“Obviously there’s extra incentive when a team doesn’t want you anymore, you want to play well. . . . I’m just glad we got the two points,” said Carcillo, who played for the Flyers from 2008 to 2011. “It’s nice, you know? I haven't scored in a long time.”
A bad turnover by Philadelphia’s Sean Couturier led to a Chris Kreider power-play goal at 13:18 of the second, his teamleading 12th goal of the season. The Rangers have now scored a power-play goal in their last five games.
The exclamation point to the chippy contest came with 11 seconds to play, when fists started flying in a brief melee and two players from each side were ejected with game misconducts.
Save for a sloppy start to the third period, the Rangers played one of their most complete games of the season. The real hero, however, was Lundqvist, who refused to give the Flyers any life, yielding only Mark Streit’s power-play score at 6:46 of the third. After a slow start to the year, Lundqvist seems to be finding himself with victories in his five of his last seven starts.
“The last few weeks I’ve been consistent in the way I play my game. Tonight I got tested early and you gain confidence when you make a couple of good saves early on,” Lundqvist said. “I'm happy with the way I’m playing my game right now. I try just to take it period by period, be as solid as I can and help the team get points. It definitely helps when we play the way we played in front of me and (we’re) making good decisions all over the ice.”