PHILADELPHIA – The New York Rangers responded Wednesday night after a less than adequate effort on Tuesday night on home ice. The Rangers lost, 4-2, to the Carolina Panthers before coming to Philadelphia and hanging a 4-0 shutout the Flyers.
Alexandar Georgiev made 28 saves for his second shutout of the season.
“‘Georgie’ was excellent, real strong game,” Rangers coach Gerard Gallant said. “He looked really solid in there and made some real big saves for us. He was the difference in the game for sure.”
New York improved to 48-21-6, and pulled to within two points of first place Carolina in the Metropolitan Division.
Kaapo Kakko hit for a double in the Rangers win.
Philadelphia was coming off a 9-2 drubbing on Tuesday night at the hands of the Washington Capitals.
“I thought we had a good start,” Philadelphia’s Scott Laughton said. “Some pretty good pace and then obviously we had a couple lapses. It happened in the Washington game a little bit more. We had a couple lapses and gave a couple of their guys some looks. … Thought we were better than last night, but when you don’t get results it is frustrating.”
Kakko’s two goals staked the Rangers to a 2-0 lad.
“He was excellent, drove the net,” Gallant said. “The line [with Filip Chytil and Goodrow] was excellent. They made some real good plays and they played the way they’re supposed to play. They created some good offense down low, and I thought they were the most consistent line on line for us.”
Filip Chytil set up Kakko on his second goal.
“He’s a good player also and a great skater,” Kakko said. “I think that’s good for me. I try to find him all the time. He’s got some speed. So that’s how we can get more time in the [offensive] zone.”
Artemi Panarin hit for a goal in the middle frame to push the lead to 3-0.
Andrew Copp added a late empty-net goal for the 4-0 final.
Felix Sandstrom made 30 saves in the Flyers loss.
“I think that game probably has a different turn if we score the first goal,” Flyers coach Mike Yeo said. “We worked hard and that’s great. We have to be able to win games when the other team scores first too. I think the effort was there, I think the focus was there, the desire for the guys to really step up and win was there. We did some things that weren’t good enough to get the win but can’t fault the effort.”
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