The Flyers were upset with Sean Avery for taking on and knocking down Matt Carle with a right hand to the jaw in a second-period fight that was the first of the defenseman’s six-year NHL career, such as it was, but it’s the Eastern leaders who surely will have to deal with NHL VP Colin Campbell for an incident that took place in the final seconds of their Garden 3-2 victory over the Rangers.
For after Brandon Prust laid a big hit on Kimmo Timonen and was skating down the boards, both Daniel Briere and Scott Hartnell threw punches from the Flyers’ bench that made contact with the Rangers’ winger. That provides grounds for supplementary discipline.
Briere was suspended for three games earlier in the season for his crosscheck to the head of the Islanders’ Frans Nielsen on Oct. 30. The center had been suspended twice previously by the league.
The Rangers’ Brandon Dubinsky was fined $1,000 for grabbing Edmonton’s Colin Fraser from the bench during a Nov. 14 brawl at the Garden that was ignited when Avery knocked down Ladislav Smid.
*
Ryan Callahan, who last night missed his 14th game with the broken left hand he sustained blocking a shot in Pittsburgh on Dec. 15, has been cleared to skate while holding a stick, but his ETA remains Feb. 1 at the Garden against the Penguins in the first game after the All-Star break.
The Rangers have outscored their opponents by an aggregate 50-37 in third periods (30-29 in the first, 46-46 in the second), which is the good news. They’ve also earned 13 points in games they’ve trailed after two, which is also good news.
The bad news is that they’ve begun to make a habit of trailing after two, six out of the last nine, and 14 times overall.
“We know what we have to do to be successful,” said Dubinsky. “Maybe we need to prepare better.”
*
The Blueshirts allowed two first-period goals within seconds of killing the Flyers’ first two power plays, then yielded the third while on a power play of their own when Derek Stepan turned over the puck in the offensive zone after overhandling it, thus setting up a two-on-one that Mike Richards converted off a gorgeous Claude Giroux feed.
Stepan, who said, “I’ll learn from that,” buried Mats Zuccarello‘s centering feed to bring the Rangers within 3-2 at 11:37 of the third after entering with one goal in his previous nine games.
Wojtek Wolski, who finished the night on the line with Stepan and Zuccarello after coach John Tortorella switched up all his combinations yet again, scored the Rangers’ first goal on a no-angle shot from the left corner, his second in four games since being acquired from Phoenix. That unit was the Rangers’ best in the third period.
The Rangers, who have lost two straight for fourth time this season, will attempt to avoid first three-game regulation losing streak when Maple Leafs come to Garden on Wednesday. That precedes a three-game trip to Carolina, Atlanta and Washington.