The Flyers kicked off their Eastern Conference road trip with a visit to Madison Square Garden in search of points, and came up short.
They were not able to generate much offense in the Garden — a rink that has been a notorious house of horrors for them since the beginning of the decade — and posted 22 shots in a 3-1 loss to the New York Rangers, in the season finale between both teams.
Derek Stepan scored two goals just 3:20 apart in the third period (at 10:34 and 13:54), while Derick Brassard opened the scoring with his second goal against the Flyers (24-20-10) this season. Brassard also added an assist, while Mats Zuccarello and Dan Girardi recorded two assists each.
With 1:42 to play, the Flyers found themselves on the powerplay as Tanner Glass did time for slashing. They pulled Steve Mason to generate a 5-on-3 opportunity, and with just under 10 seconds to go, Brayden Schenn finally put the Flyers on the board. Obviously, Schenn came up a day late and a dollar short.
Shayne Gostisbehere earned the secondary assist on Schenn's power play goal, extending his record points streak to 12 games.
In looking for his third win of the season against the Rangers (31-18-6), Mason was saddled with the loss in a 27-save performance. Henrik Lundqvist turned away 21 of 22 shots, and was just 9.7 seconds away from his fifth-career shutout of the Flyers.
The biggest storyline entering the game was how the Rangers would respond to the presence of Wayne Simmonds, who had a target on his back after injuring Ryan McDonagh in last weekend's matchup between both teams. Simmonds was engaged early, as he dropped the gloves with Dylan McIrath just 39 seconds into the game.
Twenty seconds later, Ryan White dropped the gloves with Glass — who went on record as to make threats against Simmonds earlier in the week. Chris VandeVelde and Zuccarello each took cross-checking minors just moments later, and the game featured a total of 14 penalties in minutes before five minutes could elapse.
The Orange and Black capitalized on just one of five power-play opportunities, while the Rangers scored on one of four.
The Flyers' road trip continues on Tuesday, in a rematch of Saturday's loss to the New Jersey Devils.
Rob Riches is a contributor to Flyerdelphia and Sports Talk Philly. Follow him on Twitter @Riches61
