Recap: Mika Magic Returns in Philly, Win 3-1

After spending Thanksgiving in the city of brotherly love, the Rangers wrapped up their four game road trip with a matchup against one of their storied rivals, the Philadelphia Flyers. Since kicking off the trip in New Jersey, the Rangers have gone 2-1 through this stretch as the Flyers were coming off a 3-2 loss to the New York Islanders on Wednesday. This would be the first of a Thanksgiving back-to-back for the Rangers as they’ll head home to host the Boston Bruins tomorrow afternoon.

1st Period:

The Rangers wasted no time getting after it as Chris Kreider did a great job of making a difficult pass to Blake Wheeler to get out of their own zone. Wheeler then made a great play to sneak the puck over to Mika Zibanejad who beat Carter Hart to make it a 1-0 game just 45 seconds in.

Mika Zibanjead snapped an eight game scoreless drought which lasted almost a full month. While Mika was due for one to begin with, it shouldn’t come as that big of a surprise that it came today as he has 11 career goals in 14 games against Carter Hart and the Philadelphia Flyers.

Very soon after, the Rangers lost an offensive zone face-off but Travis Sanheim turned the puck over to Chris Kreider who immediately put it in the back of the net to make it 2-0.

Kreider picked up his 11th goal of the season on the play as the Rangers scored a pair of goals 68 seconds apart, quite the ideal start to kick off their post Thanksgiving back-to-back.

A couple minutes after the second goal, Jacob Trouba got tied up with Garnet Hathaway and Nicolas Deslauriers in his own end. He and Deslauries started going at it on the way out of the zone and while that was going on, Hathaway ended up with the puck near the boards at center ice. In the midst of chirping away with Deslauriers, Trouba loaded up one of his infamous Trouba hits and laid Hathaway out. Both Flyers players wanted to have at it with Trouba, as they had that entire shift however it was Barclay Goodrow who jumped in to properly go at it with Hathaway.

The Flyers took the first minor penalty of the night as Joel Farabee was sent off for hooking  Alexis Lafrenière. The Rangers wouldn’t convert on the man advantage and gave up a shorthanded opportunity as Noah Cates found himself with a golden opportunity for a breakaway. Thankfully, it was at the end of the shift and Cates was out of gas, which led to Lafrenière poking the puck away from him.

With just under seven minutes to go, the Flyers had one of their best chances of the period that surely would have been a goal if Ryan Lindgren hadn’t slid in front of the net to block the shot. A great defensive play by Lindgren kept the Flyers off the board but later that shift, Wheeler took a tripping penalty which gave the Flyers their first power play opportunity of the day.

Following a successful penalty kill from the Rangers, Ryan Lindgren took a hard hit from Garnet Hathaway which resulted in Will Cuylle going after Hathaway. This led to the second fight of the afternoon as Cuylle did a great job of holding his own, taking Hathaway down in standing up for Lindgren.

The Flyers would get their second chance on the power play as Cuylle was assigned a minor penalty for instigating in addition to the fighting major and ten minute misconduct for being the third man in. The Rangers penalty killers were successful for the second time that period which brought the teams to the first intermission of the afternoon. Despite the Rangers more or less dominating the period, the shots were 12-7 in favor of the Flyers.

2nd Period:

After another good start to the period, K’Andre Miller was sent off for tripping which gave the Flyers yet another opportunity on the man advantage. The Rangers have been outstanding on the penalty kill as of late, successfully killing off 21 of their last 23 and would remain perfect on the net through their third outing.

Closing in on the halfway mark of the game, Zibanejad dished a pass up to Wheeler through the neutral zone. Zibanejad went straight to the net which led to Wheeler finding him once again as he poked the stick ahead to redirect it past Hart to give the Rangers a 3-0 lead.

Lafrenière had a real good chance on the rush but opted to look for the pass to Trocheck instead of shooting which ended up getting clogged up the middle of the slot. Despite having three goals on the night, the Rangers were opting to pass more as the game went on.

After another great shift from the Rangers fourth line, Travis Sanheim caught Jimmy Vesey up high to give the Blueshirts their second chance on the power play. The top unit had a couple quality chances but again, wouldn’t capitalize. Special teams were quite busy throughout the night but neither team was able to truly take advantage of their chances.

With just over two minutes left in the second, Nate Seeler let a shot go from the point that Sean Couturier was able to deflect past Shesterkin to spoil the Rangers shutout streak and put the Flyers on the board.

The Flyers kept pushing through the end of the third and ended up drawing the Rangers fourth penalty of the night as Lindgren was called for tripping. With only 44 seconds left in the period, the Flyers couldn’t get anything set up as the Rangers were able to hold them off right up to the buzzer. Just as it sounded, K’Andre Miller finished a hit which led to another scrum as tensions continued to rise throughout this rival matchup.

After two, the Rangers were up 3-1 with the Flyers still ahead in shots 23-16. The Rangers would still start the games final period short handed but Miller and Sean Walker would also head to the penalty box for coincidental roughing minors as a result of the scrap that ended the second.

3rd Period:

The Rangers had a great start to the period after killing the Flyers fourth power play attempt. Despite having a two goal lead, they continued playing aggressive and were sustaining strong offensive zone pressure. The Flyers continued to hang around as they weren’t going to go down without a fight and as the period went on, Igor Shesterkin and the Rangers defenders grew more and more busy.

Nearing the midway point of the third, the Flyers had a big chance where Shesterkin had to come up with a pair of big saves. On the wrap-around attempt that followed the second save, Jacob Trouba made a beautiful defensive play to slide out across the other side of the net, slapping the puck away. The fourth line went the other way with it and Tyler Pitlick came close to his first as a Ranger on a partial breakaway.

Erik Gustafsson was then assigned the Rangers fifth penalty of the night, another one for tripping along the boards. Certainly one of the Rangers most penalized outings of the season which would only continue as Nick Bonino sent the puck over the glass shortly after killing off the penalty on Gustafsson. The Rangers came close to extending their lead as Kreider finished on a breakaway but a successful coaches challenge resulted in the call being reversed, keeping the score 3-1.

The Flyers pulled goaltender Carter Hart with a few minutes still on the clock. The Rangers did a good job of holding them off and came close to the empty net on a couple of chances. As Rangers fans do anytime there’s an empty net on the other side of the ice, anticipation buzzed as Shesterkin almost had the chance to get a shot off. Alas, the puck took a bounce and the score would hold at 3-1 as the final buzzer sounded.

A 36 save night for Igor as he helped lead the Rangers to another big win, finishing up their four game road trip with a 3-1 record. The big storyline of this one will be Zibanejad’s pair of goals against a team he historically has success against. However, a big part of this team’s win came as a result of a collective team effort with guys playing physical, blocking shots and sticking up for each other. An all around entertaining showing in a real team effort to pick up another two points. The Rangers are right back at it on Garden ice tomorrow as they’ll host another one of the top teams in the league, the Boston Bruins.