*Photo from AP News*
The New York Rangers have taken pleasure in beating the Philadelphia Flyers this season. While on Friday they did not beat them by 9 goals, as they did earlier in the year, they will still take a win any way they can get one. Alexis Lafreniere scored a goal, Pavel Buchnevich scored the game winning goal, and the Rangers defeated the Flyers by a 4-1 score Friday night.
Chris Kreider started the scoring for the Rangers in the first period with his 20th goal of the season to make it 1-0. Just 45 seconds after Kreider scored, Oskar Lindblom scored for the Flyers to tie things up at one apiece. Not even a minute after Lindblom tied it, Buchnevich scored to make it 2-1 after one period. It remained that way until the 9:24 mark of the 3rd, when Lafreniere scored to increase the lead to 3-1. Just over 4 minutes later, Filip Chytil made it 4-1 Rangers with his 8th goal of the season.
Rangers coach David Quinn said of being a few points out of the playoff picture that "You do a lot of scoreboard watching. Anyone that tells you you don't is lying to you. We can't control what's going on away from us. We know the task in front of us. We just have to continue to approach each night in the right way, and when we do that we have a chance to win. We did it enough tonight. I think we have to do it more moving forward here, but we did it enough tonight to win."
Alexandar Georgiev started in net for the Rangers, and put together a solid outing for the win, stopping 26 of 27 shots, with Lindblom's goal serving as the only puck that got past Georgiev. He improved his record to 7-5-2 this season with the victory, while the Rangers are 5th in the East Division, just outside a playoff spot, with a 24-18-6 record.
Georgiev said of the win that "We tightened it up defensively, especially the first and second period. Got the lead and didn't try to get another one. We just played the game, didn't force anything. Got the huge 5-on-3, and that helped definitely a lot."
Alex Lyon got the start for the Flyers with Carter Hart injured and Brian Elliott getting a day off. Lyon saved 20 shots out of 24 that came his way in the defeat. Lyon is now 0-1-0 this season, while the Flyers tailspin continues, as they are 6th in the East with a 21-19-7 record.
Flyers coach Alain Vigneault said of the lack of offense that "I think it was one of the turning points. We had a lot of grade-A opportunities to fight our way back into this game. Didn't give up much in the first period, really two scoring chances, and we were down 2-1 but we had some great looks on that 5-on-3 and we had some great looks 5-on-5. Their goaltender just seemed to be at the right place at the right time tonight, and it was the difference for me."
The Rangers host the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday night, with Igor Shesterkin expected to start for the Rangers. The Flyers play host to the Devils on Sunday, where Hart would get the start if ready to return, but if not, Elliott would get the start.
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