New York Rangers vs Philadelphia Flyers Game 2: Wrap-Up

FINAL SCORE: New York Rangers – 2 Philadelphia Flyers – 4

SERIES SCORE: New York Rangers – 1 Philadelphia Flyers – 1

Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports

FIRST PERIOD: To open the game, the 3rd line of Mats Zuccarello–Derick Brassard–Benoit Pouliot took the face off. On defense, alternate captain Marc Staal and Anton Stralman were on the ice. Within the first two minutes, Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds was called for holding and the Rangers had their first power play of the game which was killed off by Philadelphia. Shortly after Rick Nash passed it to Derek Stepan who slid the puck to Martin St. Louis who scored his first goal of the playoffs to give the Rangers a 1-0 lead. Shortly after the Flyers took their second penalty of the game and the power play went to work, Pouliot scored his first playoff goal as a Ranger and gave New York a 2-0 lead. After another counter from the Flyers, their first power play was granted from a holding penalty on Rangers Carl Hagelin. One shot was registered on the Flyers’ man advantage, as the Rangers were able to keep them off the scoreboard. With 5:46 minutes left in the period, Flyers forward Jakub Voracek was able to skate in around Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi and slid the puck in the net behind Henrik Lundqvist. Claude Giroux and Scott Hartnell assisted on the play. The Blueshirts saw their third power play, after Voracek slashed McDonagh and were able to sustain offensive pressure but were unable to capitalize. The last few seconds of the period saw the Rangers 4th line keep the puck in the offensive zone and away from Lundqvist. The Rangers led 2-1 in goals and 9-8 in shots.

SECOND PERIOD: The second period started civilized and quickly took a turn for the worst. With only a little more than three minutes gone by in the period Anton Stralman took an unnecessary penalty in front of the Rangers net. On the following power play, with less than 10 seconds to go Jason Akeson scored to tie the game at two. Another scrum developed in the front of the Flyers’ net as Derek Dorsett was front and center. Philadelphia and New York both received penalties. Mats Zuccarello was called for embellishment and Andrew Macdonald was called for interference. After a brief 4 on 4, Flyers Kimmo Timonen was called for holding, giving the Rangers their 4th power play, their first of the period which they again failed to capitalize on. Shortly after the Flyers killed the man advantage, the Flyers scored on Luke Schenn’s opportunity, completing the comeback from a 2-0 deficit. The nastiness started rearing its head in this game. Near commercial break, Dorsett again was at the center of attention, this time Simmonds took notice. Finding the penalty box, the Flyers Simmonds and Hartnell sat out. Also, penalties were given to Rangers forwards Dorsett and Dominic Moore. Nothing less should have been expected in this matchup. With less than six minutes left, Rangers’ forward Nash had a prime look at Emery but could not get one past him. Defenseman John Moore jumped into the play and grabbed the rebound and put it on goal. However, Emery swatted that attack. After Braydon Coburn draped himself over Zuccarello like a shower curtain, he was called for holding. Rangers saw their fifth power play opportunity of the game. You could feel the team needed to take advantage of this opportunity to answer the Flyers’ goal and swing momentum back on their side unfortunately the Rangers weren’t able to capitalize and they went one for five on the power play, thus far. After a shaky start and the appearance of another repeat performance from game one in the opening minutes, Philadelphia was able to tighten up and solve Lundqvist. Three unanswered goals and Emery standing tall in net, the Rangers left the 2nd period scratching their heads. They will need to regroup and dictate their will for the third period. The period ended with the Rangers out-shooting the Flyers again, 26-17 but this time were down 3-2 on the scoreboard.

THIRD PERIOD: Going into the third period the Rangers needed to score at least one goal to get the game tied and some momentum flowing in their favor, but they failed to do such. The Rangers tried to gain some momentum but sat back as the Flyers used the momentum they had gained from period two to roll the Rangers over in the last period of game two. New York registered only seven shots on net in the third period and did not force Emery to make the tough saves which is why he could not be beaten by the Rangers. Towards the end of the period, just as you thought maybe the Rangers would tie the game they took a too many men penalty, on the preceding power play for the Flyers Wayne Simmonds scored an empty net goal to give the Flyers a 4-2 lead and their first win at Madison Square Garden in three years.