Rangers beat the Flyers again
Marian Gaborik and teammates celebrate his late 2nd period goal to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead. (Feb. 5, 2012) Credit: David Pokress
Artem Anisimov picked the right time to snap out of his scoring slump. The Russian forward, who hadn’t scored in 18 games, deflected a shot past Philadelphia goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov just 1:04 into Sunday’s matinee at Madison Square Garden and added two assists as the Rangers rolled past the Flyers, 5-2.
“I go on the bench and I go, ‘Whoa. I score? Nice,’” said Anisimov, who was reunited with Derek Stepan and Marian Gaborik for the first time since Jan. 14. The trio produced seven points.
“I enjoy every shift on the ice, every game,” Anisimov said. “But we find each other . . . there’s chemistry.”
There also was plenty of bad blood between these rivals, with four fights and 72 minutes in penalties, as the Rangers — who have won all four meetings this season, including the Winter Classic — stood toe-to-toe with the Flyers. As a result, the first-place Rangers (33-12-5, 71 points) moved five points ahead of the Flyers in the Atlantic Division. As the game wound down, the Garden crowd taunted the Flyers: “You can’t beat us!”
“I think the key against the Flyers is you just have to work really hard and be ready to battle,” said Henrik Lundqvist, who has allowed only six goals in the four games against the Flyers. “We really stepped up, we had a few guys that were ready to go, some big fights. It’s important when you play a team with a lot of skill that you’re ready to be physical.”
Rookie defenseman Stu Bickel was ready. He traded punches with Wayne Simmonds and Tom Sestito. Sestito, who had three fights (three fights in one game is an automatic game misconduct), also dropped the gloves with Brandon Dubinsky and Brandon Prust.
The Rangers outshot the Flyers 14-5 in the first period and led 1-0. As a Rangers power play was ending in the second, Ryan McDonagh kept the puck inside the Flyers’ zone, but it bounced to Jacob Voracek, who fired a pass to Brayden Schenn, bursting from the penalty box. He went in on a breakaway and beat Lundqvist (21 saves) with a backhander at 12:02. The goal snapped a career-best 180:37 shutout streak for Lundqvist.
Gaborik gave the Rangers, who wore their Winter Classic uniforms, a 2-1 lead with six seconds left in the second period. After absorbing a big hit from Andrej Meszaros behind the net, Gaborik recovered and attempted a wraparound that slid under Bryzgalov for his team-leading 26th goal. “I knew there wasn’t a lot of time left,” Gaborik said. “I just tried to go around and put it on net. It was a lucky goal.”
The Flyers tied it at 2 early in the third on a power play after Dubinsky took a delay-of-game penalty for sending the puck over the glass. Simmonds, unchecked in front, scooped up a loose puck and beat Lundqvist at the 57-second mark. But Michael Del Zotto, on a pass from Gaborik, fired a shot through Bryzgalov’s pads from the left circle 36 seconds later for a 3-2 Rangers lead.
Dubinsky scored his first goal in eight games at 12:15 and Ruslan Fedotenko added an empty-netter at 18:44.
Dubinsky, who played only 8:36 against Buffalo on Wednesday, said: “We have been neck and neck with those guys all year long. Every game we’ve played against them has been physical, a playoff-type atmosphere, and we knew it was going to be like that today.”
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