The Philadelphia Flyers fought hard in the third period of Saturday's game against arch rival New York. Wayne Simmonds tied the game midway through the final stanza. Mats Zuccarello scored in the shootout whie Henrik Lundqvist blanked the Flyers and the Rangers skated off with a 3-2 victory.
Brayden Schenn put the Flyers up 1-0 just under four minutes into the first. Schenn took a pass across the crease from Sean Couturier and tapped it into the open net. Michael Raffl picked up the secondary assist on Schenn's 10th of the season.
The Rangers had the games first power just a few minutes later. Despite numerous scoring chances with the man advantage, the Rangers were unable to score.
J.T. Miller got the Rangers on the board at 16:08 of the first. The goal was Miller's ninth of the season. It came with Raffl in the box for interference. Miller took a stretch pass from Ryan McDonagh and beat Mason clean to tie the score.
The Rangers outshot the Flyers 16-12 in the period and the teams went to the locker room ties 1-1.
The Rangers took the lead at 4:49 of the second. Chris Kreider scored his seventh of the season in tight to put New York up 2-1. Rick Nash and Derek Stepan had the assists.
The Flyers would a chance to tie it midway through the second when Dominic Moore got penalized for holding. They were unable to take advantage.
Two minutes later the Flyers had yet another power play. Just as with their first chance, they were unabvle to score.
Philadelphia would outshoot New York 11-4 for the period but Lundqvist was up to the task and New York led 2-1 at intermission.
Philadelphia would finally break through on the power play. Wayne Simmonds made it 2-2 at 10: 33. Simmonds took a pass in front from Jakub Voracek for his 12th goal of the season.
Play picked up from there with both teams getting chances but neither able to finish a nd the game went to overtime.
In the extra session both teams moved the puck up and down the ice and had excellent scoring chances. Neither team was able to finish and the game went to the shootout.
Shayne Gostisbehere, Claude Giroux and Voracek all failed to score. Mats Zuccarello did for NY and the Rangers pulled out the 3-2 victory. Steve Mason made 34 saves in the loss.
The Flyers in in action tomorrow night when they travel to Detroit.
Bill Minchin is a contributing writer for Flyerdelphia. Follow Bill @wtfd103074
