Rangers stay alive in playoff race with win over Flyers

The long and winding road to a potential playoff spot has one more stop for the Rangers.

It is down to this: Win on Sunday in Philadelphia in the regular-season finale, and they are in the playoffs for the fifth straight season.

With a regulation loss meaning elimination from playoff contention, the desperate Rangers hung on to beat the Flyers, 4-3, Friday night in a nail-biter at Madison Square Garden.

The win gave the Rangers 86 points and tied them with the Flyers for eighth in the East.

"The way we've been playing the last two weeks, we should be there," said Henrik Lundqvist, who held the Flyers scoreless in the third with 10 of his 24 saves.

Marian Gaborik scored the deciding goal at 16:54 of the second period after the Flyers battled back with two scores to erase a 3-1 deficit.

Gaborik, who tied a career high with his 42nd goal, picked up Chris Pronger's turnover at center ice and sped down the left side toward goaltender Brian Boucher. He braked and fired. The puck flicked off the stick blade of defenseman Matt Carle and flew past Boucher's raised glove to restore the Rangers' lead - just 2:13 after Lundqvist's poke check on Mike Richards' rush bounced off Michal Rozsival's skate and in.

"The puck was bouncing and it was almost near the end of the period, so I just shot it," Gaborik said. "That's what you have to do against these guys: forecheck, play in their end, and shoot to be successful. That's what we have to do again on Sunday."

Gaborik's winner punctuated a wild second period. Brandon Dubinsky scored his 20th by converting a nifty pass from Gaborik, who curled to the right post and slid a backhander to the charging Dubinsky at 6:58 to make it 3-1. But Danny Briere's wide-open one-timer from the left circle at 8:26 brought the Flyers within 3-2 and Richards' second of the game six minutes later tied the score at 3.

"You want to know that if you go down a goal, you can come back," said Jody Shelley, who scored his first goal since March 28, 2009, in the second. "We have the firepower and the goaltending and that's the kind of confidence you want."

The Rangers lost Dan Girardi for five minutes after he fought Scott Hartnell, who had blasted Artem Anisimov into the boards. But the Flyers went on a power play at 13:24 when Aaron Voros took an interference on a late hit. Lundqvist's left pad at the right post stopped a rebound bid by James Van Riemsdyk to preserve the lead.

The Rangers also played without Ryan Callahan after the midway point. Skating with a brace on his right knee, Callahan crunched Pronger into the glass, came up wincing and could barely climb into the bench.

The Rangers overcame a shaky start. Richards blocked an attempted up-the-middle clearing pass from Marc Staal, took a couple of strides and beat Lundqvist just 40 seconds in to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead. But Chris Drury scored a power-play goal at 7:22, Shelley scored almost three minutes later and the Rangers led 2-1 after the first period.