PHILADELPHIA — Even with the chaos the Philadelphia Flyers are going through right now, it couldn’t have been an easy call for Rangers coach Gerard Gallant to start backup goaltender Jaroslav Halak on Saturday night instead of Igor Shesterkin.
Not with Halak’s 1-6-1 record coming in.
“I think he's been good,’’ Gallant said at the morning skate. “He's had a couple hiccups with a couple of bad goals, but overall, he's played pretty solid hockey for us for the most part. … We're in business of winning hockey games and Shesty's played really well. But we’ve got back-to-back games and [Halak’s] obviously going to play one of the next two.’’
So, with the Rangers flying to Chicago after the game to play again Sunday night, Gallant rolled the dice and started the 37-year-old Halak against the Flyers. And the gamble paid off as Halak (29 saves) played well and the Rangers beat the Flyers, 6-3, to extend their winning streak to six games.
Entering the game, the Rangers had only scored 12 goals in Halak's eight starts, and had been held to two goals or less in all but one. But they gave him plenty of offensive support this time.
After Jimmy Vesey’s third goal in the last two games gave the Rangers a 4-2 lead at 6:22 of the third period, Morgan Frost beat Halak with a shot from the wing — through a screen by Jacob Trouba — to pull Philadelphia within 4-3 at 7:53.
But with Vincent Trocheck serving a slashing penalty, and the Flyers pulling goalie Carter Hart for a six-on-four advantage, Trouba scored an empty-net goal with 2:08 remaining for his first goal of the season. Ryan Lindgren was credited with another empty-netter with 47.6 seconds left for his first of the season to seal the win.
Seeing gritty forward Barclay Goodrow — whose 13 goals last season were a career high — playing on the Rangers’ top line, with Artemi Panarin and Mika Zibanejad, didn’t exactly fire up the imaginations of the Blueshirts faithful. But Goodrow played a major part in the Rangers holding a 3-2 lead after two periods.
James van Riemsdyk had scored first for the Flyers, banging in a rebound off the back boards at 7:11 of the first period, but Goodrow set up Panarin’s equalizer at 16:58 of the period with a sweet diagonal pass from the left boards to the back post off a rush.
Then, in the second period, K’Andre Miller put the Rangers ahead 2-1 at 9:09 with a highlight-reel goal after he was taken down on a breakaway but stayed with it.
Miller had just come out of the penalty box, chipped the puck out of the Rangers’ zone and sped off on a partial breakaway, then was tripped to the ice. As the referee raised his arm to signify a penalty, Miller got up and pulled the puck to his forehand and tucked it in behind Flyers goalie Carter Hart for his second goal of the season.
Later, Goodrow made it 3-1 when he drove the net, took a pass from Zibanejad, and slipped a backhander under Hart for his seventh goal of the season at 12:14.
“We always pick on Goodrow,’’ Rangers coach Gerard Gallant had said after Friday’s practice. “All he does is do a good job for me.’’
But the Flyers managed to stay in the game when Scott Laughton scored a short-handed goal after a bizarre sequence of events, to pull the home team within 3-2 at 17:56 of the second period.
First, Chris Kreider, in on a breakaway against Hart, sent a backhander around the fallen goalie that looked as though it may have crossed the goal line. Vincent Trocheck went in to try and jam the puck in, but he was cross-checked by Travis Sanheim, setting up the Rangers’ first power play of the game.
But before they dropped the puck, the officials checked to see if Kreider’s shot had completely crossed the goal line. After a short review, they determined that it had not, and the Rangers started their power play. But Panarin’s attempted backhand pass to Adam Fox was picked off by Laughton, who sprinted up ice on a two-on-zero breakaway with Travis Konecny. Laughton was able to slip a shot under Halak to pull the Flyers within one.
