Rangers Fast Start Sinks Flyers in 7th Straight Loss

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

The Flyers entered Wednesday's game against the New York Rangers having not scored more than three goals in a game in 15 straight games. By the 34-second mark of the second period, they would need three goals just to tie things back up, as another game was slipping away.

It wasn't a result that was as out-of-hand as the others recently, but it was a defeat all the same, as the Flyers took the loss for the seventh straight game, 4-1, to the Rangers. 

The Rangers got a power play just over two minutes in. After struggling to gain entry for most of the man-advantage, they eventually struck, as Jacob Trouba's point shot beat Carter Hart through a screen to make it 1-0 at 3:41.

Midway through the period, the Flyers tough luck continued, as Joel Farabee went down with an injury. He returned from the bench for his next shift, but the Rangers got a goal from Dryden Hunt in transition and Farabee headed to the locker room after that. Hunt, who moments earlier had been robbed by Hart from the slot, made a move around Ivan Provorov before scoring his third goal of the season to make it 2-0 at 9:32.

The Rangers controlled most of the period from there, not only catching back up in shot total, but getting high-quality scoring chances throughout the remainder of the period. Through 20 minutes, shots were 15-11 Rangers. 

It took just 34 seconds for the Rangers to continue to open up the lead. After a failed clear by Scott Laughton, the Rangers quickly moved the puck and Chris Kreider got the payoff on the tic-tac-toe play to make it 3-0.

Just over a minute later, Hunt was called for a charging major and received a game misconduct, giving the Flyers a five-minute power play. Despite their recent struggles, the Flyers had possession in the offensive zone and did generate multiple quality chances, having one bid go off the crossbar and three more shots stopped by Igor Shesterkin. The Rangers were able to kill off the major. 

The Flyers did get on the board a few minutes later at 9:37. An angle shot by Claude Giroux hit the skate of Trouba and went in on Shesterkin. The rebound sat in the crease and finally Morgan Frost was able to poke it home to make it 3-1. 

The Flyers killed off a Rangers power play with under six minutes to play in the period, then got a power play of their own with 17 seconds remaining in the period. Through two periods, shots were 27-20 Flyers.

The Flyers were not able to score on that power play either. They briefly pushed the play following the man-advantage, but the Rangers ultimately stabilized things and the rest of the period played out without much fanfare.

The Flyers had one more power play with 4:11 left and were unable to do much with it. Artemi Panarin scored into an empty net with 43.9 seconds remaining in the third to seal the result.

Shesterkin finished with 33 saves on 34 shots in the win. Hart stopped 24 of 27 shots in the loss.

The Flyers get back on the ice at Wells Fargo Center on Sunday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning at 6 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• NYR Jacob Trouba (4) PP (Kaapo Kakko, Nils Lundkvist) 3:41
• NYR Dryden Hunt (3) (Artemi Panarin, Adam Fox) 9:32

2nd Period

• NYR Chris Kreider (16) (Kakko, Mika Zibanejad) 0:34
• PHI Morgan Frost (1) (Cam Atkinson, Claude Giroux) 9:37

3rd Period

• NYR Panarin (6) EN (Unassisted) 19:16

Game Statistics