Rangers Pound Flyers in Blowout for the Ages

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

The Flyers went into Wednesday's game against the Rangers coming off a 5-4 overtime win that improved their record to 3-5-0 in the month. It's a slide, but it wasn't hitting nuclear level just yet.

Wednesday's game was rock bottom, one of the most embarrassing efforts in Flyers history. After falling behind 2-0 in the first, the Flyers allowed seven goals to the Rangers in the second. You read that right: seven. A touchdown. That's how things got to the final score in a 9-0 shellacking.

The Rangers got an early opportunity to get on the board with a power play, but did not score. But it didn't take them long after to get on the board.

Adam Fox put a move on Andy Andreoff along the wall and centered to an open Brendan Lemieux going to the net. He opened the scoring with his second of the season at 7:05.

After another failed power play for the Rangers, they managed to take a 2-0 lead off another turnover. Ryan Strome fed Artemi Panarin for the goal, his seventh of the season.

Through 20 minutes, shots were 8-6 Flyers. At the horn at the end of the period, Kaapo Kakko hit the crossbar with a harmless-looking shot. That was a sign of things to come.

From the start of the second, the Rangers were only faster and harder on pucks and it showed. It took just 1:38 for them to extend the lead to three, as Pavel Buchnevich was left alone in front. Two minutes later, Buchnevich scored again to make it 4-0.

Just under four minutes after that, Jacob Trouba scored his first of the season to make it 5-0. That marked the end of the game for Brian Elliott, who allowed five goals on 13 shots. Less than a minute later, while shorthanded, Mika Zibanejad got a breakaway and scored to make it 6-0.

As the period moved on, the Rangers finally got the power-play goal, as Zibanejad struck again to make it 7-0 at 14:29. With 1:23 remaining in the period, Zibanejad completed the natural hat trick to make it 8-0, doubling his season total for goals in the process. Just 62 seconds after that, Filip Chytil got in on the action with a goal to cap a seven-goal second period and make it a 9-0 game.

Through two periods, shots were 23-16 Rangers.

For the third, with the game well within their grasp, the Rangers played smart and focused on getting pucks deep. The Flyers had nine shots in the period, but the only formality was completed as Alexandar Georgiev finished off a 26-save shutout.

Five Rangers finished with multi-point nights. Trouba, Panarin and Strome each had two points. Buchnevich had two goals and two assists in a four-point night. Zibanejad had six points, all in the second period.

Travis Sanheim and Phil Myers were each a minus-6. Sean Couturier, Claude Giroux, James van Riemsdyk, Joel Farabee, Connor Bunnaman and Jake Voracek were each a minus-3.

The Flyers are back on the ice on Thursday night to face the New York Islanders in the first of three games in a row. Game time is 7 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• NYR Brendan Lemieux (2) (Adam Fox, Brett Howden) 7:05
• NYR Artemi Panarin (7) (Ryan Strome) 14:47

2nd Period

• NYR Pavel Buchnevich (9) (Mika Zibanejad) 1:38
• NYR Buchnevich (10) (Jacob Trouba, Zibanejad) 3:38
• NYR Trouba (1) (Zibanejad, Buchnevich) 7:30
• NYR Zibanejad (4) SH (Unassisted) 8:27
• NYR Zibanejad (5) PP (Panarin, Strome) 14:29
• NYR Zibanejad (6) (Chris Kreider, Buchnevich) 18:37
• NYR Filip Chytil (4) (Libor Hajek, Alexis Lafreniere) 19:39

3rd Period

• No Scoring

Game Statistics