Rangers edge Flyers in shootout, 3-2

                    PHILADELPHIA---Wojtek Wolski and Erik Christensen scored in the shootout this afternoon  to lift the Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Flyers.

                    As a result, the Rangers stayed alive in the playoff hunt, grabbing two critical points to reach 89 with three games to play. Henrik Lundqvist stopped both Nik Zherdev and Claude Giroux in the shootout. The Rangers are 9-3 in the extra session.

                    Carolina, with 86 points, and Buffalo, with 88, are facing each other in a 5 p.m. game.  

                    With defenseman Ryan McDonagh limping to the bench after blocking a shot, the Flyers curled back into the offensive zone and former Ranger Zherdev converted a left-side pass from Claude Giroux at 4:43 of the third to knot the score at 2. It was Zherdev's fourth in five games against the Blueshirts. The Rangers had a power play when Scott Hartnell went off for a cross check, but in the best opportunity, Sergei Bobrovsky stopped a deflection in front by Ryan Callahan,

                    Ruslan Fedotenko scored his first goal in 14 games, at 13:30 of the second period after the Rangers had killed a Flyers power play, to give the Rangers a 2-1 lead going into the third period. The Flyers had their third power play of the game when McDonagh went off for hooking trying to break up James Van Riemsdyk’s breakaway with 3:57 left, but the Rangers penalty kill denied the Flyers again. The Rangers turned back all four power plays for the Flyers.

                     Fedotenko had been hammered along the boards by Braydon Coburn after his goal, and Brian Boyle dropped the gloves with Coburn and took some heavy rights. Henrik Lundqvist has stopped 24 of 25 Flyers shots, and made two big saves from in close as the period ended.    

                  The score was tied at one after 20 minutes.

                  During a 5-on-3, with Coburn in the box for high-sticking Marc Staal, who sustained a broken nose but didn’t leave the game, Bryan McCabe stepped into a shot from the slot. He rifled the puck over Bobrovsky’s glove with 0.7 seconds left in the period. The Rangers had been 0-for-16 coming in with the man-advantage.

                  Van Riemsdyk had scored his 21^st on a rebound in front at 12:25 of the first, giving the Flyers a 1-0 lead. Philadelphia was 2-for-25 on the power play in their last 10 games.

                   The Rangers concluded the season with a 24-16-1 road record. They are 18-16-4 at Madison Square Garden, where they will finish the season on a three-game homestand beginning tonight against the Bruins.