Rangers can’t catch Flyers as playoff gap widens

The Rangers dropped their second straight following four straight wins over the Devils and fell eight points behind Boston for the fourth and final playoff spot in the East Division.

James Van Riemsdyk scored two power-play goals and the Philadelphia Flyers held on for a 3-2 victory over the host New York Rangers Thursday night.

Van Riemsdyk entered Thursday with one goal in his previous 19 games and recorded his third multi-goal game of the season by scoring twice on deflections.

He scored a fluky goal late in the second period and wound up going to the locker room after tying the game.

Van Riemsdyk tied it when he deflected a shot from Travis Konecny into the net when the puck went off his face. The play sent him to the locker room for the final 4:04 of the second and the first few minutes of the third but he returned wearing a full facial shield and gave Philadelphia a 2-1 lead a little over halfway into a four-minute power play.

After Kevin Hayes cleanly won an offensive zone faceoff from Mika Zibanejad, he slid the puck to Ivan Provorov. Provorov lifted a wrist shot from the right point and Van Riemsdyk deflected the puck over goaltender Igor Shesterkin’s left arm with 9:31 remaining.

Jakub Voracek added insurance about 3 1/2 minutes after Van Riemsdyk’s second goal and Provorov added two assists as the Flyers (21-18-7, 49 points) avenged last month’s 9-0 loss in New York.

Rangers’ Zac Jones tries to catch up to the Flyers’ Nolan Patrick.

Defenseman Brendan Smith scored the first goal for the Rangers (23-18-6, 52 points), who dropped their second straight following four straight wins over the New Jersey Devils and fell eight points behind the Boston Bruins for the fourth and final playoff spot in the East Division.

Artemi Panarin made it a one-goal game with two minutes left with a slap shot from the left point through traffic that sailed over goalie Brian Elliot’s right shoulder shortly after the Rangers pulled Shesterkin.

Elliott made 33 saves, including point-blank stops on Pavel Buchnevich and Ryan Strome after Panarin made it a one-goal game.

Shesterkin also stopped 33 shots and stuffed Joel Farabee on a penalty shot in the final minute of the second to keep the game tied.

Smith opened the scoring with 10:05 remaining in the first period shortly after a power play ended when he parked himself in the right faceoff circle, got a cross-ice pass from K’Andre Miller and lifted a slap shot over Elliott’s stick.

This story originally appeared on: NyPost - Author:Field Level Media