The Rangers found out what happens when you let the Flyers hang around, and what can happen when you get sucked into their type of game.
With a chance to take hold of this first-round playoff series on Sunday at the Garden, the Rangers blew an early two-goal lead and lost, 4-2, knotting this best-of-seven contest 1-1 as the setting shifts to Philadelphia for Game 3 on Tuesday night.
“Like a lot of playoff games, it’s a roller coaster,” said Rangers center Brad Richards, who tied a game high with five shots on goal and played an astounding 9:21 on a power-play unit that disappointed in going 1-for-6. “You knew they were going to come with a better effort, but in the end we just didn’t bury the goals when we had they opportunities and they did.”
The Flyers buried those goals against Henrik Lundqvist, who turned away 21 of the 24 shots he faced, his normal heroics seemingly just out of reach.
At the other end of the rink, he was outplayed by his counterpart, veteran backup Ray Emery, who shined in his second straight start in place of the injured Steve Mason, piling up 31 saves and allowing the Flyers to score three unanswered goals. Wayne Simmonds added an empty-netter to seal things in the waning seconds.
“This game can be funny sometimes,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said of the second period, when the Flyers got goals from rookie Jason Akeson and Luke Scheen to take a 3-2 lead. “I thought it was our best period of the night. We had some Grade-A chances, our power play had some great looks, and they scored two and we didn’t. At the end of the night, that was the game.”
The Rangers seemed to be beaming with confidence coming in, having taken Game 1 on Thursday with a decisive 4-1 victory, scoring two third-period power-play goals while taking advantage of a late double-minor on Akeson. They kept that momentum going Sunday, doing their best to wake up the lazy Easter-morning crowd with first-period goals from Martin St. Louis and Benoit Pouliot, the latter on the man-advantage, coming off the rush rather than any set execution.
“This is a team that is not going to give up, and we know that,” said St. Louis, who now has a goal and two assists in two playoff games with the Rangers after having just one goal and seven assists in his 19 regular-season games with the team. “We have to keep pushing on our side.”
The Flyers were staked to some life before the end of the first when Jakub Voracek skated right around a flat-footed Ryan McDonagh and netted one past a sprawled-out Lundqvist, cutting the lead to 2-1.
“We definitely got the start we were looking for,” Lundqvist said, “but they managed to turn things around.”
The Flyers also managed to introduce a new level of brutishness, something the Rangers have been open about trying to avoid. After-whistle scrums became commonplace, and the Flyers ended up taking a total of nine penalties, giving the Rangers 11:27 of man-advantage time.
Yet the group that lifted the Rangers in the series’ opening game was unable to do so in Game 2, watching a huge opportunity pass them by.
It gave the Flyers their first win in the Garden in nine games, and shifted the series to the Wells Fargo Center, where the Flyers won both times they played host to the Rangers this season.
“It’s going to be a close race,” Lundqvist said. “We didn’t expect this to be easy. We just have to regroup and stay confident here, go to Philly and try to beat them there.”