The Flyers had this one in their hands late, then let it slip away.
Philadelphia carried a 2-1 lead into the third period Thursday night at Madison Square Garden, but the Rangers answered twice down the stretch and walked off with a 3-2 regulation win to open the Flyers’ five-game road trip.
Rick Tocchet didn’t sugarcoat it afterward.
"That's inexcusable," the Flyers' head coach said. "Being up 2-1 and then you give them those goals we gave, it's inexcusable."
The turning point came with 6:08 left in regulation, when Denver Barkey was in the penalty box for slashing and New York cashed in on the power play to tie it. Then, with 4:39 remaining, Tye Kartye buried the winner after the Flyers got crossed up defensively. Jamie Drysdale and Travis Sanheim were both checking up ice on the opposite side, the fourth line was on the ice, and Sean Couturier got caught in the neutral zone, leaving Kartye open through the middle.
Philadelphia had done the hard part earlier. Simon Benoit and Noel Acciari scored in the second period to erase an early deficit and flip the game. Benoit’s goal was an unexpected lift from the blue line, his seventh career NHL goal, and Acciari followed less than two minutes later after Drysdale jumped into the play and Barkey set it up with poise around the net.
Still, the Flyers couldn’t protect the lead when it mattered most.
"I think the third period, we were a little bit more on our heels than we were in the other two periods," Acciari said. "I think we were trying to defend a lead rather than just play the game and do what made us successful during the other periods."
That result fit the bigger picture for Philadelphia, which has now lost five of its last six games at 1-4-1 and 14 of 18 overall at 4-10-4. The Flyers also sit at minus-21 in goal differential, excluding the shootout, and are scoring just 2.17 goals per game.
Thursday also marked the start of a stretch that keeps them on the road until next Sunday.
"We know we have it in this room, we've shown it in periods," Acciari said. "We've just got to, as a group, find a way to bring it for all three periods."
The game was the first of four meetings between the Flyers and Rangers, who improved to 9-7-1.
New York got on the board first just 4:39 into the game on a double deflection. Gabe Perreault got a piece of J.T. Miller’s redirection after the Flyers got stuck in their own zone and couldn’t get out cleanly.
The Rangers’ goaltender Dylan Garand stopped 22 of 24 shots, while Joseph Woll turned aside 24 of 27 for Philadelphia. Woll was making his first start in a little over a week, and the Rangers finally solved him on the power play after he had held them off for a while.
Pavel Dorofeyev scored the tying goal on the man advantage.
There were a few other Flyers notes sprinkled through the night. Cole Knuble centered the second line after Tocchet wanted to shift him from the wing to the middle for more speed.
Knuble worked on faceoffs with Acciari and Couturier at morning skate, though the rookie finished 0 for 5 at the dot. Tocchet said he did some good things anyway.
Matvei Michkov also saw his ice time dip late in the second period after an extended shift and an icing, though he returned for a power play with 1:58 left in the period and started the third.
Rasmus Ristolainen was at morning skate as he continues to work back from a left hand injury. Tocchet said, "It's going to come to pain tolerance for him," but added, "that is a step in the right direction."
Ristolainen has missed 14 of the last 15 games.
The Flyers are back on the ice Sunday against the Flames at 7 p.m. ET on NBCSP.
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