FINAL SCORE: New York Rangers – 4 Philadelphia Flyers – 1
SERIES SCORE: New York Rangers – 2 Philadelphia Flyers – 1
Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
FIRST PERIOD: At the end of the season, the Rangers were the best road team in the National Hockey League, and set a franchise record with 25 road wins for a season. So going into game three in Philadelphia should have been an easy task, with a team that knows how to win on the road. However, this is the playoffs and nothing is easy, so the Rangers took it one shift at a time. Dominating the play in the beginning of period one, all the Rangers needed was to start with a goal in a loud and hostile environment to grab some momentum. With just about four minutes gone in the period Derek Stepan scored a goal that bounced off Ray Emery and in to give the Rangers an early lead. A minute and a half after the goal, Wayne Simmonds took a penalty and gave the Rangers a man advantage but a minute after that Benoit Pouliot took a penalty that negated the power play and made it 4 on 4. Pushing the pace of the play, a little after the halfway mark of the period Martin St. Louis scored his second goal in two games off of a tip-in shot from Dan Girardi, Rick Nash registered his second point of the night. Scott Hartnell took a penalty after the St. Louis goal but the Rangers failed to capitalize on the advantage, Kimmo Timmonen took a delay of game penalty with three minutes left in the period but again Pouliot took a penalty to negate the possible power play. During the following 4 on 4, St. Louis and Ryan McDonagh bumped into each, sending the Flyers on a 3 on 1 and Mark Streit made no mistake as he scored to cut New York’s lead in half. The period came to its end and the Rangers were up 13-12 in shots and 2-1 in goals.
SECOND PERIOD: Coming into the period in a familiar spot, leading with only one goal on a dangerous come back team like the Flyers the Rangers needed to score at least one goal to regain their two goal lead. With a little more than five minutes gone by Girardi gave the Rangers that lead with a blast from the point that went over Emery’s left shoulder and into the net. The Rangers would hold that lead for the rest of the period but not without some resistance by the Flyers. With eight and a half minutes left in this period Carl Hagelin and Jakub Voracek got into a fight and were both assessed roughing minors, Dan Carcillo was also assessed a roughing minor even though he was not near the play. Killing off the Flyers power play, and another one that came five minutes later, the Rangers successfully held onto their 3-1 lead going into the third period. The Rangers were out shot 13-4 in that period, and were down 25-17 in shots after period two.
THIRD PERIOD: If I could pick two names to highlight this period they would be Henrik Lundqvist and Daniel Carcillo. The Flyers came out early and just kept taking shot after shot on Lundqvist as he made every save needed (except one shot that hit the post). Carcillo seemed to be a target all period, all game even, but never greater was that fact then when Matt Read came through and elbowed him in the jaw. with 11 and a half minutes left in the period Carcillo got called on a questionable hooking penalty, and the Rangers were sent to their fifth penalty kill of the game. After killing that penalty the Rangers went on a break down the ice with Boyle and Carcillo who just exited the penalty box. Boyle directed it towards the net and Carcillo tipped it in and then went to celebrate by the glass with the Flyers fans who had booed him all night long increasing the lead to 4-1. Simmonds took a penalty with four minutes left, the Rangers failed to capitalize for the fourth time on the power play. The third period, and the game came to its end and the Rangers took a 2-1 series lead. The shot totals were 7-6 for Philadelphia for the third period and 32-23 overall for the game.