Nicolas Aube-Kubel (2nd goal of the season) opened the scoring less than a minute into the game. Colin Blackwell (power play, 3rd) drew the Rangers even early in the second period. Brendan Smith (1st) put New York ahead at 8:21 of the third period. With 1:14 left in regulation, Joel Farabee (7th) scored from the crease to force overtime.
Carter Hart stopped 31 of 33 shots during the hockey game but was beaten by Kaapo Kakko and Artemi Panarin in the shootout. Alexandar Georgiev denied 20 of 22 Flyers shots in regulation and OT before going 2-for-3 in the shootout.
The Flyers went 0-for-5 on the power play. New York went 1-for-5, including a 5-on-3 and an overtime 4-on-3.
TURNING POINT
The Flyers needed a two-minute 4-on-3 penalty kill in overtime to nurse the game to a shootout. In the skills competition, Kevin Hayes lost the puck and Kaapo Kakko beat Hart. Then Sean Couturier went forehand-backhand-forehand to move around Georgiev. Artemi Panarin snapped a shot over Hart before James van Riemsdyk was unable to put his third-round attempt past Georgiev.
MELTZER'S TAKE
1) The Rangers paid for an early icing. The Flyers attacked the net and, with all three forwards on the Kevin Hayes line getting involved, Aube-Kubel finally forced the puck over the line in a scramble at the 59-second mark of the game. The Flyers, especially Sean Couturier and his linemates, continued to do a strong job at keeping their feet moving, winning 50-50 puck battles, controlling the boards and generally outworking the Blueshirts.
New York also helped out with two undisciplined penalties -- a Ryan Strome trip of Travis Sanheim on a prolonged Rangers cycle, and a Chris Kreider hook of Couturier on a clearing play that reduced a Rangers two-minute 5-on-3 power play to a 4-on-3. A broken Mika Zibanejad stick, a one-timer off the crossbar, a Sanheim block and a clutch glove save by Hart took care of the rest.
2) The Flyers generated a lot of good looks at the net, and Georgiev came up huge in stopping Joel Farabee on a 2-on-1 pass from James van Riemsdyk and in denying Michael Raffl with a spectacular save on a set play. The Rangers also blocked 10 Flyers attempts and Philly missed the net seven times, which led to New York having an 11-6 shot on goal edge in the opening frame.
3) The second period was not nearly as well played by the Flyers as the first. Hart (11 saves on 12 shots) stepped up big, including breakaway and penalty shot (16:41) saves on Pavel Buchnevich. Hart had little to no chance to stop a Colin Blackwell high-tip power play goal with swirling traffic at 3:24; the Rangers controlled the puck throughout. The power play resulting in the 1-1 goal came about as a result of a Hayes tripping penalty at the end of a shift that started with a rush for his line that went awry.
