POSTGAME 5: Goals Remain Elusive in 4-1 Loss to Rangers

The Philadelphia Flyers' winless streak extended to seven straight games (0-5-2) as they suffered a 4-1 loss to the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night. The Rangers have won four in a row and have points in nine of the last 11 games (8-2-1).

Philadelphia, which has been utterly goal-starved since Game 6 of the season, dug too deep of a hole for themselves in the first 21 minutes of this game. They had chances to climb back into the contest but were unable to get any closer than a two-goal margin.
Goals by Jacob Trouba (PPG, 4th goal of the season) and Dryden Hunt (3rd) built an early 2-0 lead for the Rangers.
Chris Kreider (16th) made it a 3-0 game on the opening shift of the second period. Morgan Frost (1st) narrowed the gap to 3-1 near the midpoint of regulation.
The Flyers drew no closer. Artemi Panarin (6th) added an empty-net goal in the final minute of the game.
Carter Hart stopped 24 of 27 shots in a losing cause. Igor Sheshterkin denied 33 of 34 Flyers shots.
The Flyers went 0-for-3 on the power play, including a five-minute advantage in the second period. They had looks and chances but that wasn't good enough. The Rangers went 1-for-2 on the power play.
TURNING POINT
Hart made a fantastic save on Dryden Hunt midway through the first period but then Hunt scored the next time around on what looked at first to be a routine foray. He got inside position on Ivan Provorov and then beat Hart through the five-hole. Now, a one-goal game became a 2-0 deficit. Philly spent the rest of the night chasing the game.
MELTZER'S TAKE
1) The Flyers had killed off 13 of 14 penalties heading into the game, but the Rangers put an end to that run after Morgan Frost took a high-sticking minor at 2:03 of the opening period. Trouba fired a point shot through layers of traffic that Hart was unable to track. The assists went to Kaapo Kakko and Nils Lundkvist. Kakko now had points in six of his last seven games.
James van Riemsdyk, who had been struggling to get shots on goal in recent games as well as points, had several shot attempts early in the game. JVR had three shots in the first period.
Joel Farabee left the game midway through the first period with an apparent shoulder or collarbone issue. He collided with the boards, went to the bench and then eventually left after briefly trying to test it.
Nine minutes into the first period, Hart robbed Dryden Hunt from the lower slot. On his next shift, he scored at the 9:32 mark. Hunt cut in off a rush to work the puck past Provorov and beat Hart through the five-hole. The assists went to Artemi Panarin and Adam Fox.
2) Sometimes analytics can be revealing. Other times, they can deceive. Officially, high-danger chances in the first period were 5-4 in New York's favor. Realistically, though, New York significantly had more dangerous looks at the net throughout the period. Hart was tested more than Sheshertin, and it wasn't all that close. Shots were 15-11 in the Rangers favor.
3) Just 34 seconds into the second period, a turnover by Scott Laughton on a clearing attempt had Travis Konecny and Kevin Hayes trapped after leaving the defensive zone. A tic-tac-toe goal quickly ensued for the Rangers: Mika Zibanejard to Kakko to Kreider. Hart had non chance.
Justin Braun was shaken up, and slightly cut on a late hit by Dryden Hunt, who left his feet and received a charging major at 1:56 along with a game misconduct. The Flyers had several high quality chances but couldn't get one past Sheshterkin. For about 20 seconds, Sheshterkin had to play with a position player stick after losing his own.
4) Finally, at 9:37, the Flyers got on the board. Frost had his feet moving all shift, made a pretty pass and he finally got rewarded with an ugly-but-good poke in tally near the net. It was Frost's first NHL goal since scoring in each of his first two NHL games in his Nov. 2019 callup, The assists were credited to Cam Atkinson and Claude Giroux.
At 14:15 of the second period, Frost received his second high-sticking minor of the game. This time the Flyers killed it off. Couturier had a shorthanded chance. As the penalty expired, Hart had to make a great save to keep the deficit at two goals.
Second period shots were 15-5 in the Flyers favor. Philly had an all-situations 63.2 percent shot attempt share (the five-minute power play helped, naturally) and a scoring chance edge of 7-3 overall and 4-2 in terms of high-danger chances.
5) The Flyers took a 1:43 carryover power play into the third period: a virtual must-score situation when trailing by two goals. There was one good look off a faceoff win. Later, a Couturier backhander went off Sheshterkin's mask, crawled partially up his arm but did not drop in past him. The Flyers saw the opportunity go by the wayside.
About six minutes into the third period, Couturier was unable to finish off another scoring chance. Shots for the period at that juncture were 3-1 Flyers. The Rangers picked up the pace as mid-period approached. Hart had to come up big on back-to-back saves on Kakko and Zibanejad. Then Frost lost the puck and Hart had to rob Filip Chytil. With 6:57 left, Hart denied a deep slot shot by Chytil off another Flyers turnover. With 5:59 remaining, the Flyers gave up a 2-on-1 on a bad pinch by Ristolainen. Hart made a big save on Ryan Strome. Then, with 5:19 on the clock, Hart made a 10-bell stop on Artemi Panarin.
With 4:11 left, Fox flipped the puck over the glass from the defensive corner for an automatic delay of game penalty. The Flyers lost the first faceoff and then never got much pressure. Hart was pulled for an extra attacker in the final 10 seconds.
In the final 50 seconds of the game, Ristolainen blocked a Kakko attempt at the empty net. Moments later, Panarin stripped Giroux of the puck and fired the puck into the vacant cage.