Dan Carcillo, who scored the first goal for the Rangers, and Wayne SImmonds exchange words during the Flyers 4-1 loss to the Rangers. (Photo Courtesy of ESPN.com)
Sunday night offered a chance at rebound and redemption. Instead it offered embarrassment.
The Philadelphia Flyers have been victimized by slow starts before. But the New York Rangers took advantage in a different way. Very rarely have the Flyers been so bad that a mere 10 minutes was enough to decide the game. But three goals in the first 9:24 was enough to decide this game easily.
The Rangers were in control from the start and cruised to a 4-1 win over the Flyers on Sunday night at Madison Square Garden.
A former foe helped the Rangers get on the board first. Dan Carcillo completed a wrap-around for the game's first goal, beating Ray Emery at 2:14. Just 28 seconds later, Rick Nash scored from the slot.
The game progressed for another few minutes before Derick Brassard added the third goal of the period for the Rangers.
One area where the Flyers succeeded was the penalty kill. They killed off the first four power-play attempts for the Rangers to increase their streak to 25 straight successful kills. The Rangers finally struck for a power-play goal at 13:18 of the second period, with Chris Kreider getting the goal.
The Flyers managed to solve Henrik Lundqvist in the third. At 6:49, a shot by Mark Streit beat Lundqvist. The goal was originally credited to Tye McGinn, then Brayden Schenn before being given to Streit. Sean Couturier and Vincent Lecavalier assisted on the goal. Lecavalier's assist was the 500th of his career.
That was the only blemish for Lundqvist, who stopped 37 shots in the win.
The Flyers return to action on Tuesday in Buffalo against the Sabres.
Kevin Durso is the lead beat writer for Flyerdelphia. Follow him on twitter @KDursoPhilsNet.
