Lundqvist Out-duels Hart as Rangers Defeat Flyers in Shootout

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

Wins haven't been easy to come by for the Flyers. To their credit, every single game of the preseason has been competitive, but the Flyers only had one win to show for the preseason entering Thursday night's game against the Rangers, the team they beat last Saturday on home ice.

The Flyers once again were competitive in this game, caught in a goalie duel between Carter Hart and Henrik Lundqvist. On this night, the King bested the kid.

Hart finished with 31 saves in 65 minutes and Lundqvist had 32. In a shootout, Mika Zibanejad had the only goal to lift the Rangers to a 2-1 shootout win over the Flyers.

The Flyers outshot the Rangers, 13-8, in the first period, carrying the play for a majority of the period. In the dying seconds of the period, the Rangers grabbed the lead on a strange bounce.

A point shot by Tony DeAngelo deflected and hit off Rangers forward Vladislav Namestnikov. The deflection grazed across Hart's back and to the other side of the goal where Lias Andersson was able to bat it into the net with just 12.1 seconds remaining.

The Flyers were again starting to carry the bulk of the play in the second and at 6:26, finally found a way to beat Lundqvist. A centering pass by Kevin Hayes hit the skate of Travis Konecny and went in to tie the game at one.

Through two periods, shots were 27-20 Flyers.

Hart was the star of the third period, making saves on all 11 shots he faced in the period. The Flyers were limited to just two over the final period, though Joel Farabee loudly hit the post for the second time in the game during the period.

In overtime, the Flyers got a power play off a tripping penalty to Ryan Strome. They managed four shots during the overtime, but could not beat Lundqvist and the game headed to a shootout.

Farabee joined Jake Voracek and Claude Giroux in getting stopped by Lundqvist. Hart stopped DeAngelo and Kaapo Kakko, but could not stop Zibanejad's backhander, as the Rangers claimed victory.

The Flyers dropped to 1-2-3 on the preseason in six games. They will now head to Europe on Friday night where they will conclude the preseason with a game in Switzerland before opening the regular season next Friday.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• NYR Lias Andersson (2) (Vladislav Namestnikov, Tony DeAngelo) 19:47

2nd Period

• PHI Travis Konecny (2) (Kevin Hayes, Claude Giroux) 6:26

3rd Period

• No Scoring

Overtime

• No Scoring

Shootout

• PHI Jake Voracek – Miss
• NYR Tony DeAngelo – Save
• PHI Claude Giroux – Save
• NYR Kaapo Kakko – Save
• PHI Joel Farabee – Save
• NYR Mika Zibanejad – Goal

Game Statistics