Flyers win a wild one in overtime against the New York Rangers
The Philadelphia Flyers entered last night’s game in a complete downfall. They started off March 2-4 and desperately needed a win against the New York Rangers. It was the start of a 10-game stretch that leads right up to the NHL’s trade deadline on April 12th. The game itself wasn’t pretty, but thanks to a dominant game by Jakob Voracek, the Flyers ended up winning 5-4 in overtime in what was arguably a must win game.
The Flyers improved to 3-5-0 in March and 14-9-3 overall. They are now within one point of playoff spot in what turned out to be a loaded East Division. The Flyers have been able to score goals all season long. The problem, however, is their defense and preventing goals. Opposing teams have scored three or more goals in all eight games in the month of March. To say the Flyers’ defense misses Matt Niskanen would be an understatement.
Even in a game last night against the 11-12-4 Rangers, who were without their leading scorer Pavel Buchnevich, their top defensemen Adam Fox, and winger Phillip Di Giuseppe, the Flyers almost let this game slip away.
Carter Hart wasn’t fantastic in net but the defense didn’t do much to help him out all game. Sanheim and Myers had rough moments, Prosser and Gostisbehere weren’t much better. There were a lot of lapses on defense that allowed the Rangers to make a push in the second period after the Flyers got a 2-0 advantage in the first.
Hart leaving with a win was huge, and he did have his moments.
The Flyers got goals from Voracek, JVR, Provy, Joel Farabee, and Claude Giroux. Joel Farabee continued his breakout sophomore season (credit Danny Diemer and The Liberty Yell) and absolutely sniped a goal with just over a minute left in the second period to tie the game at three. Farabee finished with another multi-point game (one goal, one assist) and now has 24 points on the season with 12 goals and 12 assists. Last year as a rookie, Farabee had 21 points (eight goals, 13 assists) in 52 games.
Giroux and Voracek were fantastic all night. After falling behind in the third period on a Kevin Rooney goal, Giroux tied the game at 4-4 with a power play goal off an incredible pass from Voracek. Just under two minutes into overtime, Voracek put one in the back of the net to give the Flyers a 5-4 overtime win.
Next Up: The Flyers and Rangers are back at it on Wednesday in New York. Puck drops at 7:30pm.
