Rangers take care of business with 4-0 win over the Flyers
It wasn’t the most scintillating game of the season, but the New York Rangers were able to come up with a workmanlike 4-0 win over the Flyers in Philadelphia. Though the Flyers outplayed the Rangers early, the team rode two goals by Kaapo Kakko and Alexandar Georgiev’s goaltending to a solid, boring win.
Coach Gerard Gallant gave all of the credit to Georgiev, saying “Georgie was excellent. Real strong game. He looked really solid, made some big saves for us. He was the difference in the game for sure.”
The best you can say about this game was that they won and no one got hurt. The biggest positive was the offensive contributions from Kaapo Kakko who scored for the first time since December 15. True, he missed 31 games with an injury, but he also had not scored in his last 14 games.
Alexis Lafrenière was a healthy scratch so the third line was Kakko, Barclay Goodrow and Filip Chytil, back from an injury. Chytil played a very strong game and Goodrow added two assists.
Gallant liked the combination. “The line was excellent, they made some real good plays, they played the way you’re supposed to play, they created some good offensive down low and I thought they were the most consistent line all night for us.”
After the game, Kakko spoke breaking the scoring drought. “I was out for a long time. I think always the first couple games, not so good, but getting better…that was my best game in the last three games.”
Gallant was complimentary of Kakko’s effort. “Even after he scored his two goals, I liked the effort he made coming off the boards and driving the middle of the lanes trying score his third goal. That’s what we talk about with young players. Get to those scoring areas and he did that tonight. It’s great for his confidence and for our team.”
As for sitting Lafrenière, Gallant said he looked tired lately and considering how young he is and that he had never played an 82 game season, he was getting a break and will be back in the lineup next game.
The best way to describe this game was that the Rangers took care of business. They need to do it again on Saturday afternoon against Detroit.
About the game
Let’s get this out of the way. The Flyers stink. They fielded a lineup of rookies and depth players and their goalie was making the second start of his NHL career. Although their lineup was clearly inferior, it was a little disturbing that they dominated early, with the first nine shot attempts and the first five shots on goal. After eight minutes they were outshooting the Rangers 7-1 and the Blueshirts looked like they didn’t know that the game had started. Luckily, Georgiev was ready when they dropped the puck and he made several solid saves to keep the game scoreless.
28 shots, 28 saves. ✅
— NHL (@NHL) April 14, 2022
Congrats to Alexandar Georgiev on recording his eighth career @pepsi shutout! pic.twitter.com/vIagGKTabo
At 10:20, Kaapo Kakko finally got the Rangers on the board, scoring from the slot. It came off an excellent shift for the third line, cycling in the Flyers zone.
Right on the money. 🎯 pic.twitter.com/DDCTDPdM3a
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) April 13, 2022
He had just missed scoring earlier, hitting the crossbar, but this time he made no mistakes, taking a feed from Barclay Goodrow and beating Flyer goalie Felix Sandstrom over his glove.
Right after the goal, the Rangers squandered a two many advantage for almost a full two minutes. The power play has been disjointed and it showed as they were guilty of standing around and shooting the puck. They needed some movement to create openings. The Flyers were helped when Chris Kreider and Scott Laughton went off for roughing after Kreider had tried to bang home a rebound. It was a ridiculous call with Laughton cross checking and then punching Kreider who did nothing.
What it did to was take the Rangers best power play weapon off the ice. You could see that Gallant wanted to jump start the power play as he left the first unit on for the entire power play, but they didn’t have any real stellar scoring chances.
The score was still 1-0 midway through the second period when Kakko notched his second goal, this time off a fantastic pass from Filip Chytil.
WELCOME BACK FIL & HELLO KAKKO AGAIN
— Rangers Videos (@SNYRangers) April 14, 2022
(via @NYRangers)pic.twitter.com/laTgwRd9z6
The Czech did all of the work in the offensive zone and then fed Kakko who was alone in front of the net and easily put the puck home 8:22 in to the period.
Just under three minutes later, Jacob Trouba intercepted a clearing attempt at the blue line and made a perfect pass to Panarin at the goal mouth who one-timed it past Sandstrom.
Trouba ➡️ Panarin for his 22nd on the season! https://t.co/nq6GngDwgb
— Rangers on MSG (@RangersMSGN) April 14, 2022
The third period was almost nonstop action as the teams went over 11:30 without a play stoppage. The Rangers locked down the defense and the Flyers couldn’t mount any kind of threat. Adam Fox took a slashing penalty with 2:19 left and the Flyers pulled Sandstrom, resulting in a shorthanded open net goal scored by Andrew Copp.
As we said, it wasn’t a work of art, but the Rangers were never really in danger of losing this game after they scored the first goal.
Here is a video recap of the game:
Notes on the game
- The win gives the Rangers 102 points and they pulled within two points of the idle Hurricanes who have a game in hand. They opened up a seven point lead over the Penguins and 10 points over Capitals The Rangers magic number to clinch second place is eight points with the Rangers holding the tiebreaker over Pittsburgh and Washington.
- This gives the Rangers a road record of 24-13-2, the most road wins since 2016-17. Their 50 road points are the fifth most in franchise history. The 24 wins are fourth most.
- With 102 points, that puts this team in seventh place most points in a season along with the 1972-73 and 2016-17 teams. The next target is 105 points, achieved by the 1991-92 Presidents’ Trophy winning team.
- The Rangers are 8-4-1 in the second game of back-to-back games. They have won four of those games on the road.
- The Rangers won three of four from the Flyers with the only loss in a shootout. This was the first time 2011-12 that the Rangers have not lost a game in regulation to the Flyers in their season series.
- Alexandar Georgiev notched his sixth straight win and his second shutout this season. He stopped all 28 Flyers shots he faced. It was the third time he has shut out the Flyers, more than any other team he has played against. It was his eighth career shutout. He lowered his goals against average to 2.91 (31st overall) and his save percentage is now .898 (48th overall).
- Kaapo Kakko notched his sixth two-goal game of his career. He has never had a hat trick. In 40 games this season he has seven goals and 16 points.
- Artemi Panarin scored his 22nd goal of the season and he now has 89 points. He needs 11 points in his last eight games to get to 100 for the first time in his career.
- Barclay Goodrow had two assists and now has 13 goals and 28 points for the season. He already achieved a career high in goals, and the 28 points are a new personal best.
- The power play failed to score for the fourth straight game and they have only two goals in their last 19 times with the man advantage. The Rangers have had four five-on-three power plays this season and have yet to score. This was the longest one at 1:55 with the prior two man advantages lasting 1:22, 35 seconds and only one second.
- As ice cold as the power play is, the penalty kill is red hot. They have gone seven games without allowing a power play goal, going 18 for 18.
- One note of trivia. There have been only two NHL players named Felix in the history fo the league. Felix Sandstrom played his second game against the Rangers. The only other Felix was goalie Felix Potvin who played for five teams over 20 years ago. So, it appears you have to be a goalie if you are named Felix.
- We’ve been pretty nasty in our comments about the national telecasts. To be honest, this one was okay. Kenny Albert is always a good option and Flyer home Keith Jones didn’t have much to say about the Flyers since they were so bad. The intermission content was pretty innocuous.
My 3 Rangers stars
- Alexandar Georgiev seemed to be the only Ranger who was prepared to play when the game started. He deserves top billing for getting the shutout and stopping the shots he needed to stop. Georgiev had excellent positioning and was rock solid. He has now allowed only one goal in his last two starts.
- Kappo Kakko scored two crucial goals to give the Rangers a 2-0 cushion. He also hit the crossbar and played a strong, physical game. He’s been noticeable in the three games he has played since the came back from his hand injury.
- Jacob Trouba was outstanding in this game, playing a physical game and adding two assists as well. He led all blueliners with three hits and five blocked shots and he was on ice for three of the four Ranger goals. His pass to Panarin was excellent, giving him an open net to score into.
The official 3 stars
- Alexandar Georgiev
- Kaapo Kakko
- Artemi Panarin
What’s next
The Rangers have two days off before their matinee Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings at Madison Square Garden. Puck drop is scheduled for 12:30pm. They then have another two days off before hosting Winnipeg at the Garden on Tuesday.
After Winnipeg the Rangers have a tough stretch of games against the Islanders, Bruins and a rematch with Carolina.