In New York, the Rangers survived another let down in the second period on Wednesday night, and defeated the Philadelphia Flyers, 4-1.
The win was the fourth straight for the Rangers, and the Flyers suffered their seventh straight loss.
Igor Shesterkin made 33 saves in the Rangers win.
“It’s honestly hard to describe,” Shesterkin said of the crowd chanting “Igor”. “It adds a lot of emotion, a lot of strength. It motivates me. The most important thing is to try to not cry right then and there.”
New York improved to 14-4-3.
Morgan Frost scored the Flyers lone goal, midway through the second period to stop a Rangers run of three goals.
“I’m not satisfied about anything here,” Philadelphia head coach Alain Vigneault said. “We have to find ways to win games here. This is serious. We’re not scoring. Right now, we’re not finishing, so we’re going to have to find ways to win games 1-0 and 2-1 until we get some of that finish that I know some of these players have. Right now, we’re not seeing it, we’re not executing it.”
Jacob Trouba opened the scoring off the power play in the first period with his third goal in four games doe 1-0 lead; his goal came off the power play.
“I don’t think anybody was really stressing,” Trouba said. “The first unit is pretty good and they take up a good chunk of the time. When we get out there and get an opportunity, just try to get shots to the net, open up some lanes. One went in. That’s good for our unit for sure.”
Dryden Hunt doubled it to 2-0 with a nifty backhand to forehand move.
Chris Kreider scored his 16th of the season from the slot as he was falling to the ice.
“It happened fast,” the Rangers Kaapo Kakko (primary assist) said. “I just saw him and he gave me one right before, but I didn’t score. I gave it back to him.”
The Flyers dropped to 8-9-4.
“We need to find a way to finish and we didn’t do that,” Vigneault said. “Just like we need to find a way to win a game and we didn’t do that. The power play had opportunities, could have made a big difference in helping us come back. We’re just not making the plays we need to make.”
Artemi Panarin iced the win with a late empty-net goal for the 4-1 final.
Kakko added two assists to keep his scoring efforts going.
“It feels great,” Kakko said. “I think we are playing great right now.”
Carter Hart made 24 saves in the Flyers loss.
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