Flyers beat Rangers to end four-game skid

Though the Philadelphia Flyers are still having trouble scoring goals, they found enough offense Thursday night to end a four-game losing streak.

Braydon Coburn's goal 3:33 into the third period broke a tie to help the Flyers beat the New York Rangers 2-1 for their second victory in nine games this season.

Coburn stepped into a slap shot just inside the blue line after the Rangers failed to clear the zone and ripped it through a screen by Wayne Simmonds and past rookie goalie Cam Talbot for his second goal of the season.

"We want to try to put as many pucks as we can at the net, and we have guys like Wayne, who is great at screening the goalie and causing havoc in there," Coburn said. " As long as you can get the puck through, things can happen."

The Rangers appeared to have tied the game at 5:36 of the third period when goaltender Steve Mason deflected a shot only to see the puck hit the leg of forward J.T. Miller and carom into the net. But after a video review, Miller was ruled to have used a distinct kicking motion to direct the puck into the net, and the goal was waved off.

" I knew right away that he kicked it," said Mason, who finished with 30 saves.

The Rangers lost for the sixth time in eight games on a season-opening nine-game trip that ends Saturday night against the Detroit Red Wings. New York plays its first home game in the remodeled Madison Square Garden on Monday night.

"We have to win a game," defenseman Mark Staal said. "We came close tonight, but we're not able to finish one out and win a game. You can talk all you want about playing better, effort and things like that, but we've got to win a hockey game and put some points up in the standings."

Despite the victory, which came after a seven-day break in the schedule, the Flyers (2-7-0) have yet to score more than two goals in a game. It's the longest such streak from the start of a season since the Boston Bruins went nine games with two or fewer goals to begin the 1964-65 season.

"When you're off a week, you can be a little rusty with the puck," coach Craig Berube said. "I still think offensively, we're not where we have to be. We don't put enough consistent pressure on the other team."

Philadelphia's Matt Read and New York's Brad Richards scored in the first period.

Talbot, who made his NHL debut because starter Henrik Lundqvist is out with an unspecified injury, stopped 25 shots.

"He did outstanding," Staal said. "He gave us a chance to win. It's a shame we couldn't get it for him."

The Flyers jumped in front 9:07 into the game thanks to a misplay by New York's Derick Brassard, who was playing the right point on the power play. Brassard whiffed as he tried to move the puck, Read grabbed it, raced in and snapped a shot between the legs of Talbot for his first goal and first point of the season.

Richards, one of the few bright lights for the Rangers during their early-season struggles, tied the game with 1:04 remaining in the period. Richards grabbed John Moore's pass down the left wall and flung it at the net from near the boards, just above the goal line. The shot hit Coburn and went past Mason, giving Richards his fifth goal of the season on a team that has scored a League-low 12 times in eight games. It also ended a goal drought of 105:05 for the Rangers, who hadn't scored since late in the second period of their 2-0 road win against the Washington Capitals last Wednesday.

"Guys are doing a lot of the right things," Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said when asked how his team could generate more offense. "We used our speed. We spent a lot of time in Philadelphia's end. We tried to get pucks through, bodies in front. But give them credit; they did a good job defending and their goalie made a couple of nice saves."

Talbot made two excellent saves during the Flyers' third power play of the game after Brian Boyle of the Rangers was called for unsportsmanlike conduct at 6:02 of the middle period. He robbed Vincent Lecavalier from the slot a few seconds into the man advantage, then denied Brayden Schenn's deflection 45 seconds later. He also got some help from his posts in the middle period, as Kimmo Timonen caught iron with a slap shot 3:00 in and Luke Schenn did the same about 10 minutes later.

New York's penalty killers were put to the test again when Benoit Pouliot was given a major for boarding and a game misconduct at 17:00 of the second period for sending Max Talbot into the boards face-first. Talbot was helped off the ice but returned early in the third period.

Cam Talbot kept the game tied in the final seconds of the power play when he robbed Brayden Schenn, who was alone in the slot.

"Cam played great, and we didn't give up much again," Richards said, "but we have to score some goals."

The Flyers hope the win will give them something to build on after a bad start.

"This is a big win against a big rival of ours," Mason said. "Getting the two points here and hopefully being able to build off that is something we need to do [to] start getting ourselves out of this hole."

Material from team media was used in this report