Flyers halt losing streak at eight games with 4-1 victory at Rangers

NEW YORK — No quit in New York.

It may be the rallying cry for the New York Rangers, but on Thursday night, the visitors showed they’re not done yet.

The Flyers entered the night in a downward spiral. They were losers of eight straight, getting embarrassed and outplayed by teams at the bottom of the NHL standings. Facing a Rangers team that was No. 1 in the NHL, it surely looked like another game where they would get blown out of a building.

Instead, the Flyers of old, the team that was sitting in a playoff spot for a good chunk of the season and besting some of the top teams in the league, returned. The result was a wire-to-wire 4-1 win.

Cam York let out a yell that you could have probably heard back in Philly after he gave the Flyers the first lead of the night 4 minutes, 21 seconds into the game. Travis Konecny, who was flying from the puck drop, picked off a pass intended for K’Andre Miller at the point and raced down the ice before pulling up and finding the trailing Flyers defenseman. York zinged it to the post and in for his 10th goal of the season and first since March 2.

The Rangers tied things with an Artemi Panarin power-play goal with 1:41 left in the period.

But the Flyers didn’t wilt. They didn’t crumble. For once they held the opposition at bay. Across all eight games of the skid, the Flyers were outscored 42-18 with 29 of those goals against coming in the final 40 minutes. The Rangers didn’t score again but came close in the third period with a shot by Alexis Lafrenière off the pipe.

Instead, the Flyers kept coming. Bobby Brink, who like Konecny was on all cylinders, got a drop pass from Ryan Poehling just inside the Rangers’ blue line. He took the puck out of his feet and skated down the middle before sending the puck to the front of the net. Finally, the Flyers got some puck luck as it went past Jonathan Quick off the stick of Miller.

Then it was the Flyers with another second-period goal. Before the game, Konecny said, “Honestly, I think we have to go back to having fun.” The forward looked like he was doing just that as he gave the Flyers a two-goal cushion. In the Flyers end, he stripped Mika Zibanejad of the puck and head-manned the puck to Poehling. The forward skated into the Rangers’ zone and found the trailing Konecny for the glove-side goal.

Noah Cates added another in the third period as he kept the puck on a two-on-one after a defensive-zone faceoff.

Breakaways

Konecny has a career-high 32 goals. … Egor Zamula was back in the lineup after being a healthy scratch for three games. Marc Staal came out in a corresponding move. … Cam Atkinson was also back. Olle Lycksell watched from the press box.

Up next

The Flyers head home to take on the New Jersey Devils on Saturday. Wayne Simmonds will sign a one-day contract on Saturday before being honored by the club.