[Andy]

Undefea-wha??

I managed to fall asleep after the game, and I woke up with no recollection of the game, other than the basics. Here's the report from Flyers.com. Sorry boys.

(Philadelphia, PA) – Brendan Shanahan scored in the second round of the shootout to lift the New York Rangers to a 4-3 victory over the Philadelphia, handing the Flyers their first defeat of the season at the Wachovia Center on Thursday night.

“Two teams at the top of the division right now, I thought we had as many chances to win the game as they did,” commented Head Coach John Stevens on the loss. “They got a power play against us late in the hockey game and we shut it down. We got down to the best defensive team in the league and we fought back and tied the hockey game and got a point.”

It didn’t take long for the Flyers to solve Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist, who had stopped all 30 shots in the first meeting with Philly on Nov. 5, as Jim Dowd fired the puck on net banking off of Lundqvist to earn his second goal of the season.

“You shoot the puck and good things are going to happen,” continued Stevens. “That is something I would like us to do more overall, but I do think we were able to generate a pretty good attack and had some quality chances with guys going to the net.”

With just over five minutes to play in the opening period, the Rangers pulled even with a goal from Fedor Tyutin, who took a feed from Scott Gomez and Sean Avery. New York quickly stormed ahead in the second period as Brendan Shanahan fired the puck just over the glove hand of Martin Biron.

The Rangers seemed in complete control of the contest, until a penalty from Tyutin gave the Flyers new life. On the ensuing face off, Mike Richards pulled the puck back to Danny Briere to snapped off a shot through a screen and past Lundqvist to even the contest heading into the third period.

“We take a lot of face offs like that and I know that we already have one defensemen along the boards,” explained Briere on his power play goal. “As a centerman you know you are basically alone going to the front of the net. A lot of times that is a two on one going in front of the goalie, so knowing that, when I saw Richards win it cleanly I was just trying to get it through their centerman coming up to me and create a two on one at the net.”

Once again it was the Rangers who struck first in the period as Petr Prucha scored his second goal of the season off a feed from Chris Drury. Continuing to battle throughout the entire game, the Flyers knotted the score at three apiece as Denis Tolpeko knocked in a rebound off of a shot from the point by Jason Smith for his first career NHL goal in just his fourth game.

“He was terrific, he plays without fear and he’s got a lot of skill and competes hard,” said Stevens of Tolpeko’s play. “We thought we needed a little jump there in the third period. We put him out there several times and he was moving his feet with the puck, challenging with his speed and he was getting in on his forecheck. It seemed like it was justice that he was rewarded with a goal. He was a very good player tonight.”

The atmosphere certainly felt like late March or early April as the two rivals battled for the Atlantic Division lead through 60 minutes of regulation play and a five minute overtime period.

“We expected this kind of a game,” said Rangers Head Coach Tom Renney. “Philadelphia is playing awfully hard, they seem to identify with what their tradition is and we knew that we had to be one of those teams that really had to put in a second and third effort.”

As the Flyers headed into their first shootout of the season, Briere shot first and attempted to slide the puck back to his forehand but was turned aside by Lundqvist, who made 23 saves on the night and stopped all three Flyers in the shootout, ending with a saves on Richards and Scottie Upshall.

The Rangers pull into a tie for first place in the Atlantic Division with an 11-7-1 record for 23 points, while the Flyers gain a point in the loss putting them at 11-6-1 on the year and will look to reestablish first place by taking on the New Jersey Devils at home on Saturday at 7 p.m. on Comcast SportsNet and 610 WIP Radio.

FLYERS NOTES
Biron stopped 26 of 29 shots in a losing effort… Picking up an assist on Briere’s power-play goal, Richards extended his home scoring streak to six games… Jason Smith recorded his 1,000th career blocked shot… The loss marks just the second time all season the Flyers have lost when scoring the game’s first goal and second one-goal loss of the year... The Flyers fell to 9-2-0 when scoring the first goal of the game.

-Flyers.com
-Andy Geleff
andy@flyershive.com

[Chris]

Well, it wasn't a HORRIBLE game.

The second period was pretty sad, but they really picked it up in the third and it seemed like the crowd fed off of that. One point is better than none, and we're not going to win them all.

[Jlg-28]

I only got to see the last 5 mins of the 3rd period and the ot and shoot out, no way did i think we would go 41 and 0 at home, plus we got the point and they played very well in the 1st n 3rd periods, now we just need to bounce back on Sta nd go on from there

[Drew]

Can't win 'em all boys. Minus a few awful plays by Fitzpatrick and Eager, and we're right in it. We lost this game because we failed to score on the several odd man rushes we had in the first period. But still, 6-0-1 at home is nothing to be upset about.

[Tocchet22]

Hey remeber we are still unbeaten in regulation at home. haha just thought i throw that out there

[Pope Pogo II]

Well, last night was a must win, I'm hoping were not saying goodbye to lfirst place, because with the way the Rangers have been playing as of late, and the way we show up as the team to beat one night, and a doormat the next, this could only be a matter of time.

I wont say we looked BAD last night, but still last night we could have and should have won that game. I was really impressed with Topelko, he looked great the entire game.