Rangers play Flyers on Sunday with playoff spot up for grab

PHILADELPHIA - The Bruins secured a playoff spot Saturday. So did the Canadiens.

One spot in the East remains. Sunday, the Rangers and Flyers - tied with 86 points - will determine who gets the final spot.

Both teams need a win to qualify. If the Rangers win, they will earn the eighth seed. If the Flyers win, they will finish as the seventh seed and the Canadiens will be eighth.

Exactly how did the Rangers arrive here for a Battle on Broad Street on the final day of the regular season?

Simple.

Winning streaks bookended around a perplexing trough of inconsistency in a middling Eastern Conference, a conference in which several of the lower seeds did not crack the 90-point barrier.

And the performances of two world-class players.

Consider where the Rangers would be without a 7-1 record to open the season and a closing run that was extended to 7-1-1 Friday night with a 4-3 victory over the Flyers at Madison Square Garden to put the Blueshirts on the doorstep of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Consider where the Rangers would be without workhorse goalie Henrik Lundqvist, voted the team MVP for the fourth consecutive season, a franchise record. Or the 42 goals and career-high 86 points for Marian Gaborik, the Slovak sniper signed to a five-year, $37.5-million contract in the offseason.

Lundqvist is set to appear in his 72nd game (17th straight) and is among the top 10 goaltenders in the NHL in saves, goals-against average and save percentage. Gaborik has six goals and seven assists in the past 11 games. And Sundayat Wachovia Center, the two will play critical roles in whether the Rangers keep playing - or pack their gear and head home.

The Bruins clinched a playoff berth with a 4-2 victory over Carolina yesterday, leaving the Canadiens, Rangers and Flyers in contention for the final two spots. Montreal lost in overtime to Toronto last night, but gained a point and clinched a playoff spot.

Lundqvist in particular gives the Rangers an advantage in net, where the Flyers have shuffled seven goaltenders because of injury and incompetence and will rely on 33-year-old Brian Boucher to save the season. "Any team that wants to get to where it wants to be, the goaltending has to be there," Rangers coach John Tortorella said.

But one teamwide difference-maker, Rangers left wing Vinny Prospal said, will come in the early going, when the visitors will be tested. "It's the start," said Prospal, who played for Philadelphia in 1996-97 and 2007-08. "We didn't have a great one [Friday]. They're going to try to come out hard and feed off the energy in the building. We have to be ready to play the same way.''

Special teams also could play a huge role. The Rangers are tied for the second-best penalty kill on the road (85.1 percent). The Flyers' power play is third best in the league (21.4 percent). The Rangers' power play is 12th in the league, but third from the bottom on the road. Philadelphia's PK ranks 13th at home.

Notes & quotes: The Rangers have won three of five against the Flyers this season . . . Ryan Callahan, who reinjured his left knee Friday and didn't practice Saturday, will be a game-time decision. If he cannot go, center Brian Boyle, who has missed nine games with a left ankle injury, will step in rather than rookie call-up Dale Weise, Tortorella said.