Travis Konecny scored and added an assist as the visiting Philadelphia Flyers never trailed and snapped an eight-game losing streak with a 4-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Thursday night.
Konecny helped the Flyers (37-32-11, 85 points) get their first win since beating the Boston Bruins on March 23. Philadelphia also moved to within one point in the race for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Cam York scored in the first period and Bobby Brink netted the tiebreaking goal off a fortuitous bounce 3:29 into the second. Konecny made a defensive play that led to his 32nd goal of the season with 47 seconds left in the second.
Noah Cates also scored by finishing a two-on-one with 14:04 minutes left in the third.
New York star Artemi Panarin scored a five-on-three power-play goal to extend his points streak to 11 games. Panarin also raised his points total to 117 — six behind Jaromir Jagr’s 2005-06 team record.
Panarin’s goal was hardly enough as the Rangers (53-23-4, 110 points) lost consecutive games in regulation for the first time since Jan. 18-20 and heard some boos in the final minute. New York’s lead atop the Metropolitan Division remained at three points ahead of the Carolina Hurricanes, who visit the St. Louis Blues on Friday.
Philadelphia goalie Samuel Ersson made 24 saves.
New York’s Jonathan Quick allowed four goals on 27 shots.
Philadelphia opened the scoring by turning an offensive zone giveaway by New York’s Alex Wennberg into a goal 4:21 into the first period.
After the turnover, Konecny sped down the left wing on a rush and hit York with a clean cross-ice pass. York had ample time in the right circle and lifted the puck over Quick’s left shoulder.
Panarin tied it by turning Adam Fox’s pass into a rising wrist shot from the left circle with 1:41 left.
Brink gave the Flyers the lead when he attempted a pass to Ryan Poehling in the crease. The puck never reached Poehling as New York defenseman K’Andre Miller deflected it over Quick with his stick.
After Konecny pressed Mika Zibanejad into an offensive-zone giveaway, he sped down the left side and waited for a cross-ice feed from Poehling. Konecny finished it with a shot from the left circle that sailed by Quick’s shoulder.
–Field Level Media
