With Pavel Buchnevich and Adam Fox on COVID list, Rangers fall to Flyers in OT 

COVID-19 protocol meant the Rangers would have to face the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday night without their leading scorer, Pavel Buchnevich, and their top defenseman, Adam Fox. For a time, the Rangers looked as if they might be able to find a way to overcome those losses, but ultimately they couldn’t overcome all of the Flyers power plays they had to kill.

The Rangers overcame a sluggish first period to dig out of a two-goal hole and take leads late in the second period and early in the third. But missing two of their top penalty-killers, they allowed two untimely power-play goals, which helped force the game into overtime.

Then Jakub Voracek’s goal at 3:47 of OT gave the Flyers a 5-4 victory.

"You kind of feel you’re up 3-2, 4-3, and they tie it, so you know you certainly want more,’’ coach David Quinn said. "I thought the overtime, we obviously spent a lot of time in their end [but] didn’t really get much. We got a couple looks but, you know, you always want two points.’’

The Rangers (11-12-4), who are sixth in the East Division, got a point closer to the fourth and final playoff spot, thanks to fourth-place Boston’s 4-1 loss to Pittsburgh.

But Philadelphia, which began the game in fifth place in the East, also gained ground on Boston, and the Flyers opened the distance between themselves and the Rangers to five points.

Buchnevich and Fox were put on the COVID-19 list Monday, joining Phillip DiGiuseppe, who had been placed on the list Sunday. Their unavailability led to some lineup changes for Quinn’s team, including the call-up of 23-year-old defenseman Tarmo Reunanen from AHL Hartford.

Reunanen, a Finn making his NHL debut, had an assist on Artemi Panarin’s second-period goal, which got the Rangers on the board after the Flyers brought a 2-0 lead into the first intermission.

Julien Gauthier, back in the lineup after having been scratched in Saturday’s win over Boston, scored a dazzling goal in a three-goal middle period that briefly gave the Rangers a 3-2 lead.

The Rangers, who did not practice Sunday, had been scheduled to have a morning skate Monday, but Quinn said the skate was canceled after consultation with the NHL. So perhaps that explains their seeming sluggishness in the first period, when they fell behind 2-0 on goals 78 seconds apart by James van Riemsdyk at 3:47 and Ivan Provorov at 5:05.

The Rangers scored three goals in the second period — Panarin at 8:12, Colin Blackwell at 10:52 and Gauthier at 15:16 — to go ahead 3-2. But then Gauthier took a high-sticking penalty at 18:27 of the period and the Flyers got the tying goal from Joel Farabee nine seconds into the power play.

Kevin Rooney’s goal at 2:56 of the third period put the Rangers up 4-3, but Gauthier’s third penalty of the game — a double-minor for high-sticking against Claude Giroux — allowed the Flyers to tie it at 4-4 on Giroux’s power-play goal at 5:33.

"To take a penalty like that, and them score so quickly, it’s disappointing,’’ Quinn said of Gauthier’s second-period penalty. "But again, we come back and score early in the third to make it 4-3, and then we give up another stick penalty. They’d capitalize on it, so, you know, disappointing that we weren’t able to sustain that lead going into the third.’’

Former Ranger Kevin Hayes appeared to win the game with a power-play goal on the second of the two minors, but the Rangers challenged that the play was offside and the challenge was successful, which kept the score 4-4.

The Rangers and Flyers will face each other again Wednesday night at the Garden.

By Colin Stephenson

colin.stephenson@newsday.comColinSNewsday

Colin Stephenson covers the Rangers for Newsday. He has spent more than two decades covering the NHL and just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.