New York Rangers lose to the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 in a game they should have won

The New York Rangers lost in a shootout to the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2.   This was a game that the Blueshirts should have won and the single point they gained is small consolation.

Like Calvin Pickard in November, the Rangers again made a Flyers goalie look like a Vezina candidate.  Michel Neuvirth came into the game with horrible stats, but made numerous clutch saves to keep the Rangers off the scoreboard.

To call the first two periods dull would be generous.  Both teams were playing a very conservative brand of hockey. It’s clear that neither team wanted to make a mistake.  The Rangers couldn’t muster much of an offense in the first period until a brilliant play at the 10 minute mark by Kevin Hayes got the Blueshirts on the scoreboard.

“OH WHAT A PLAY!”

The goal was all on Hayes as he chipped the puck past the Flyers, entered the zone and made a spinning pass to Kreider at the blue line who put his patented snap shot past Michel Neuvirth.

The teams were evenly matched for the rest of the period and the Rangers had a 10-9 shot advantage going into the first intermission.   While they weren’t dominating, the game felt well in hand.

That didn’t last long as the Flyers got going and Michael Raffl  scored his first goal of the season just 1:46 into the second period.   This came right after the Flyers killed the remaining 1:16 of a penalty that carried over from the first period.   An ill-advised pinch by Marc Staal resulted in a two on one for Raffl and Scott Laughton.  Neal Pionk went to block the passing lane and Raffl rifled a shot over Lundqvist’s left shoulder.

The game then settled into a tentative, moderately boring style and they got to the second intermission tied 1-1.  The Flyers did play better in the second period, outshooting the Rangers 13-10.

The tie score didn’t last long s a bugaboo from early in the season came back to bite the Rangers. It was the old “too many men on the ice” penalty as there were clearly six skaters chasing the puck in the Flyers’ zone.  That penalty came at 4:53 of the third period and it took all of eight seconds for the Flyers to score.

Sean Couturier won the faceoff cleanly and got the front of the net to deflect a Jakub Voracek shot that hit the post.  There was no puck luck for the Rangers as the puck bounced right to Wayne Simmonds on the doorstep and he put it home.

But the Rangers answered right back as the fourth line pressured the Flyer defense and Boo Nieves notched his first goal of the season.

This goal was the result of a vigorous forecheck by Lias Andersson. Ryan Strome fanned on a shot when the fourth line entered the zone.  Travis Sanheim had control of the puck, but Andersson nailed him into the boards, took possession and made a perfect pass to Nieves who was all alone in front of net.

There was no more scoring in the period, but the Rangers had the better of the play, outshooting the Flyers13-5.  Neuvirth made several outstanding saves including this one on Brett Howden.

In the overtime it was back and forth with both teams taking turns getting scoring chances.  The Rangers bottled the Flyers up in their zone.  Travis Konecny, Shayne Gostisbehere and Couturier were unable to change for 1:15 and were dead on their feet, but the Rangers couldn’t get a quality shot on goal.

Henrik Lundqvist made his best saves in the the overtime as the Flyers had three chances to the Rangers’ two shots.

In the shootout, Lundqvist stopped Voracek, Claude Giroux and James van Riemsdyk while Neuvirth did the same to Zuccarello, Zibanejad and Buchnevich.  Nolan Patrick was able to snap a shot past Lundqvist.  Hayes had a chance to tie and had Neuvirth beaten, but the puck slid off his stick as  he backhanded the shot and it went wide.