Neuvirth, Flyers Down Rangers in Shootout

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

As the third period moved along and time in regulation started to fade away, the fatigue of four games in six days appeared to be setting in for the Flyers. The Rangers were swarming and the Flyers were holding on for dear life.

Michal Neuvirth kept the Flyers in the game, helping them get to overtime. After a scoreless overtime, Neuvirth made three saves in the shootout, Nolan Patrick scored in the fourth round and Kevin Hayes missed on his attempt as the Flyers came away with a 3-2 shootout win over the Rangers to head into holiday break on a high note.

The Flyers outshot the Rangers, 10-9, in the first period, but the Rangers got the only goal of the period.

Ivan Provorov mishandled the puck at the blue line and that allowed Hayes to move ahead the other way. As Travis Sanheim went over to help take away Hayes, the puck was centered to Chris Kreider for a breakaway and he beat Neuvirth to make it 1-0 with his 17th goal of the season.

Early in the second, the Flyers got the goal back. Michael Raffl created a turnover at the blue line and started a two-on-one. Raffl moved in and shot high on Henrik Lundqvist for the goal, his first of the season, to tie the game at one.

Both teams killed off penalties in the second period and the Flyers went back to the penalty kill late in the period. 

Just under five minutes into the third, the Flyers got their second power play of the game and made quick work of the chance. Just eight seconds into the man-advantage, Jake Voracek set up Sean Couturier in the slot. Couturier's shot hit the post, but the rebound bounced right to Wayne Simmonds for the easy goal.

The Flyers lead was short-lived, as just 22 seconds later, the Rangers tied the game. Sanheim lost a battle in the corner and Patrick left the front of the net assuming a breakout. That left Boo Nieves alone in front and he buried the feed from Lias Andersson on a one-timer.

Neuvirth was excellent the rest of the way, making 12 saves in the period to force overtime. The Flyers had three shots in overtime to the Rangers two, but neither team scored, forcing a shootout.

The first three rounds passed with the goalies making saves on all three attempts. In the fourth round, Patrick scored by lifting a shot high to the glove side of Lundqvist. Hayes needed to score on his attempt to keep the game alive and had Neuvirth down and out, but pushed the backhand chance wide and the Flyers held on for their second shootout win of the season.

Neuvirth made 32 saves in the win, his first of the season in his third start. Lundqvist stopped 29 of 31 shots.

The Flyers head into the NHL's three-day holiday break with three wins in the last four games. They return to the ice on Thursday to face the Tampa Bay Lightning in the first of four straight games on the road out of the break. Game time is 7:30 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• NYR Chris Kreider (17) (Kevin Hayes, Marc Staal) 10:05

2nd Period

• PHI Michael Raffl (1) (Travis Sanheim) 1:46

3rd Period

• PHI Wayne Simmonds (11) PP (Sean Couturier, Jake Voracek) 5:01
• NYR Boo Nieves (1) (Lias Andersson) 5:23

Overtime

• No Scoring

Shootout

• PHI Jake Voracek – Save
• NYR Mats Zuccarello – Save
• PHI Claude Giroux – Save
• NYR Mika Zibanejad – Save
• PHI James van Riemsdyk – Save
• NYR Pavel Buchnevich – Save
• PHI Nolan Patrick – Goal
• NYR Kevin Hayes – Miss

Game Statistics