Philadelphia – Flyers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky was hoping to break the Rangers hold on them this season and early on he made a point blank save off a Gaborik one-timer. The Slovak forward would get the last laugh having a 4-point game for the first time this season leading his team to a 5-2 win over the Flyers to keep the top spot in the Eastern Conference and a 5-0 record against Philly this season.

"You're talking about taking some shots? Today, it seemed like we moved the puck, we held the puck and we kind of found that open guy and created another play, like I said, that led to a goal or scoring chance,” Gaborik stated.

Rangers captain Ryan Callahan had a hat trick, his second of his career, both of them against the Flyers. Two of his goals were on the power play and the Rangers had three power-play goals something that seemed unlikely considering how dysfunctional that unit has been. Superb play by Henrik Lundqvist was notable but the amount of blocked shots was a real difference maker again in this game. The Rangers had 16 blocked shots and defenseman Ryan McDonagh had five of them (more on this in another article.

“I think it’s a matter of confidence, this game is so big on confidence," said Callahan. “Once you start rolling with it, I mean, two games prior to this our PP started to come, I felt during that game. Then last night we get one. Then tonight we bang in a couple. It’s just a matter of sticking with it. You guys love to talk about it a lot, but in here we know we have the personnel that can execute it and do it, it’s just a matter of going out there and feeling good. Tonight we felt it.”

Lundqvist stopped 22 shots that made it through but the Flyers did manage to fire off 38 which is usually enough to get a “W” for the Orange and Black but again “King Henrik” who has been the best goalie in the NHL made a highlight save hiding the puck under his back later in the game.

“I try not pay attention to what they do (Flyers) and know what I have to do…It was a huge game for special teams,” said Lundqvist.

Flyers forward Claude Giroux did score a memorable goal when he had a breakaway that gave the Flyers phenom a 1-on-1 break and he fooled Lundqvist by staying low and forcing the puck under his glove at 6:36 of the second period to tie the game up 2-2. The game would slip away from the Flyers after that because the Rangers were relentless.

“Well obviously they got three [power play] goals, so it was huge. We were disappointed with the effort actually. The emotional level, playing against the top team in the conference…league…to be honest I think we got half the guys going half the guys not,” said Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen.

BOB made a great save of an Artem Anisimov turnaround shot while the Blueshirts were on their 4th power play. Shortly after that Anisimov got his revenge with a crease goal off a Matt Carle-Andrei Meszaros mishap and that gave the Blueshirts the 4-2 lead in the third and they never looked back.

“They had a pretty good forecheck. Bobrovsky sent the puck around the boards that got away and Gabby made a nice play getting me a great pass down low. I didn’t really do anything the puck hit my stick and went in,” Anisimov said. “I play hard and I want the puck more. I want to play strong defensively too. Up until now with these guys like Gabby and Step (Derek Stepan) all three of us are playing well.”

The Flyers remain in the top five in the conference so they will shake this one off and move on, next up are the Detroit Red Wings. The Rangers will get a chance to test their “improved” power play against the rest of the league starting with the Capitals.

photo by Joe del Tufo.