Rangers snap skid with win over Flyers

In Philadelphia, the New York Rangers finally got a win, against mostly a taxi squad of Flyers.

Philadelphia Flyers Goalie Carter Hart #79 Attempts to block a shot by New York Rangers Brendan Smith #42 in the third period

Artemi Panarin and Kaapo Kakko scored for the Rangers in the skills competition to give them a 3-2 win.

“He (Panarin) was dialed in tonight,” Rangers coach David Quinn said. “I think he understood the magnitude of the situation we were in and how badly these two points were needed. He stepped up big time.”

Alexandar Georgiev made 20 saves, and two saves in the skills portion of the evening’s festivities.

“I missed a few games and I feel better,” Panarin said. “It was important for me to get a feel for the game early on and create offense. I have some things to work on, and we’re going to continue working here.”

Philadephia Flyers David Kase #72 set the screen against New York Rangers Goalie Alexandar Georgiev #40

Nicolas Aube-Kubel opened the scoring in the first period to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead.

“Five-on-5, I really thought that our game was the way it had to be to give ourselves a chance to win this game,” Flyers head coach Alain Vigneault said. “Obviously, we had some new bodies, but we went in there and no excuses, we needed to skate hard and make the high-percentage plays, and for the most part … I really liked our overall game.”

New York replied with goals from Colin Blackwell (power-play) in the second period, and Brendan Smith scored in the third for a 2-1 lead to the Rangers.

“We talked about getting pucks to the net and a lot of times when you put it to the net good things happen,” Smith said. “I think we need to do more stopping in front of the net. That’s what coach was preaching before the game, and it worked out for me.”

With the extra attacker on the ice, Joel Farabee tied the game with just under two minutes left on the clock.

Carter Hart made 30 saves in the loss.