NHL

Rangers defeat Flyers in Winter Classic

PHILADELPHIA — The Rangers thought the officials were out to get them, but that didn’t stop them from getting another victory.

Henrik Lundqvist stopped a penalty-shot attempt by Danny Briere with 19.6 seconds to go in the Rangers’ 3-2 triumph over the Flyers last night in the NHL Winter Classic at Citizens Bank Park.

Lundqvist made 34 saves, saving his best for last.

“I knew if I went on his first move, he’d score,” Lundqvist said. “There was a lot of pressure on me there.”

More than there should have been, according to the Rangers, with both Lundqvist and coach John Tortorella questioning the officiating.

”They called a penalty shot which I still don’t understand,” Tortorella said. “I’m not sure if NBC got together with the refs to turn this into an overtime game. I thought the game was reffed horrible. I just thought tonight, in that third period, it was disgusting … I’m not sure if they have meetings in there or what.”

Still, the Rangers held on for their seventh victory in their last eight games. The Eastern Conference leaders are also now four points up on the second-place Flyers in the Atlantic.

“Everybody’s happy we played the game and we can move on with the rest of the season,” Lundqvist said after playing in front of a crowd of 46,967.

It was 41 degrees when the game started and some snowflakes fell as the evening wore on.

“All the talk was worth it,” Lundqvist said.

The Flyers took a 2-0 lead, scoring a pair of goals within two minutes of each other in the second period. But Mike Rupp answered for the Rangers 30 seconds later to make it 2-1.

Rupp, who entered the match with just one goal on the season, notched his second of the day 2:41 into the third to tie the game.

And with Tortorella mixing his lines in the final period, the Rangers took the lead when Brad Richards pounced on a rebound from a Brandon Dubinsky shot that was set up by Ryan Callahan’s play from behind the net.

But in the wild final minutes, which saw a questionable holding-the-stick penalty assessed to Callahan at 18:54, the Flyers had numerous chances to score — and nearly did.

With the puck sliding underneath Lundqvist’s leg, Ryan McDonagh appeared to dive on the puck to prevent it from crossing the line. The move worked, but it resulted in Briere’s penalty shot.

“I saw the puck rolling and in another second it was going in,” McDonagh said.

“When they said it was a penalty shot, I couldn’t believe it,” Lundqvist said. “The last five or six minutes was a big scramble, but we did a good job of keeping things simple.”

* Marc Staal made his season debut yesterday after missing the first 36 games due to post-concussion symptoms from the concussion he sustained in Carolina last Feb. 22.

“We had a talk [Sunday] at dinner,” Tortorella said, who indicated on Sunday Staal wouldn’t play yesterday. “I talked to my trainer [Jim Ramsay], I talked to [concussion specialist] Dr. [Robert] Cantu, everything was good with them, and then I sat down with Marc and asked him if he wanted to play.”

The coach said he wasn’t concerned about the unusual environment of the game and that it didn’t factor into the 24-year-old defenseman’s return.

“I don’t care if we’re playing on a creek somewhere, Marc Staal is going to play,” Tortorella said.

“I needed to get through five or six days of contact and things going well and not getting any symptoms,” said Staal, who played 12:41.

“When I saw Cantu after being shut down, he said the earliest I could come back would be the new year. I was very wary about it.”