Flyers beat Rangers 2-1, get first win of the season

January 24, 2012

Box Score (From Flyers.NHL.com)

There wasn't a lot of reason to believe that the Flyers would be able to beat the New York Rangers on Thursday night.

They couldn't find a way to score in their first three games. They were already dealing with injuries to Danny Briere and Zac Rinaldo when new broke that Scott Hartnell would miss 4-8 weeks with a broken foot. And on top of all of that, they were about to play a team that they haven't beaten since February 2011.

But everything finally clicked for the Flyers, and they earned their first win of the season by beating the Rangers 2-1.


The Flyers were in control of the first two periods, putting 28 shots on goal while the defense kept the Rangers to just 13 shots

Wayne Simmonds (1, 11:53) and Jakub Voracek (1, 15:54) each scored in the second period to give the Flyers a 2-0 lead.

However, the Rangers began to shift momentum in their favor in the third period.

After Braydon Coburn went to the box for high sticking, New York's Taylor Pyatt (3, 1:39) scored a power play goal to cut the Flyers' lead to one.

The Rangers found themselves with a 5-on-3 advantage midway through the third, after Tye McGinn was given a double minor for high sticking and Nicklas Grossmann was called for hooking just seconds later.

New York had the perfect chance to take control of the game. Instead, the Flyers' penalty kill made a stand in what proved to be the most crucial part of the Flyers' victory.

The penalty kill unit, backed by solid net-minding from Ilya Bryzgalov, successfully killed off both penalties.

Bryzgalov only saw 19 shots from the Rangers for the entire game and stopped all but one of them.

The Flyers were able to keep the Rangers off the board for the rest of the game, earning that much needed first win and sending the fans at the Wells Fargo Center home happy.

The Flyers will hit the road next to play the Florida Panthers on Saturday night.

Injury Notes
Andrej Meszaros did not return to the game after taking a hit from New York's Ryan Callahan late in the second period. As of right now, the injury is being referred to as an upper-body injury, but CSNPhilly.com's Tim Panaccio tweeted that Meszaros was wearing a shoulder harness after the game. Details on Meszaros' injury will likely be announced on Friday.


(Image from Flyers.NHL.com and Getty Images)