Philadelphia Flyers push late, but ultimately fall to Rangers 4-2
The Philadelphia Flyers looked for their fourth win of the preseason as they hosted the New York Rangers at the Wells Fargo Center.
The Philadelphia Flyers came into this preseason game with a 3-3 record and looked to make the series between the New York Rangers a 2-0 sweep, after a 6-4 victory earlier in the season.
The 1st period came and went without a score. Carter Hart, who started and played the full game, faced just four shots in the period, while the Flyers put 10 on Alexandar Georgiev. Dale Weise went off for holding with just 1:05 left in the period, and it proved to be costly.
The Flyers went on to give up three 2nd period goals, and faced a 3-0 deficit entering the 3rd period. The first goal came on a deflected shot from Vinni Letteri that Hart had no chance of stopping. Seconds after the goal Andrew MacDonald had a horrible, and i mean horrible, turnover in his own zone resulting in a tic-tac-toe goal from Brett Howden. Christian Folin went off for tripping later in the period and again, it proved to be costly. Scott Laughton and Dale Weise failed to clear the puck out of their own zone and Vladislav Namestnikov netted himself his first goal of the preseason. The Flyers had just two shots on goal in the period compared to the Rangers 12.
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The team came out firing in the 3rd period, having a nine-to-one shots on goal advantage through the first seven minutes of the final period. The Flyers created some good chances with those shots, but Georgiev stood tall. A little later in the period, Ivan Provorov lit the lamp on a nice assist from James van Riemsdyk making it a 3-1 one game. Minutes later, van Riemsdyk banked the puck off a NYR defender and cut the Ranger lead to just one.
The Flyers had a power play opportunity after JvR’s goal, but did nothing with it as they went 0-for-2 on the PP. With just under two minutes to go in the period, Head Coach Dave Hakstol decided to pull Carter Hart for an extra attacker. The Rangers regaining control of the puck, and scored a empty-netter to sell the deal at 4-2.
Carter Hart had 14 saves on 17 shots, posting a dreadful .824 save percentage with it. As i previously noted, not all of the goals were Hart’s fault, but he struggled with rebound control throughout the game.
The Flyers are now 3-4 in preseason play, and their final game is Saturday against the Boston Bruins.