Zibanejad, Kreider lead Rangers to victory over Flyers
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Mika Zibanejad scored two goals, Chris Kreider added a goal and an assist and the New York Rangers skated to a 3-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday afternoon.
Blake Wheeler chipped in a pair of assists for the Metropolitan Division-leading Rangers, who have won 12 of 14 contests. Igor Shesterkin made 36 saves for New York.
Sean Couturier scored for Philadelphia, which dropped its second straight after winning five in a row.
Rangers coach Peter Laviolette tied Dick Irvin for 10th-most career games coached with his 1,448th contest. Laviolette was the head coach for the Flyers in 272 games between 2009-14.
New York jumped on the Flyers early, scoring twice in the opening 1 minute, 53 seconds to take command.
Zibanejad netted the first of his two tallies 45 seconds into the game when he shot high over Carter Hart to finish a 2-on-1 with Wheeler. Just 22 seconds later, Kreider took advantage of a turnover by Philadelphia defenseman Travis Sanheim and shot past Hart for his team-leading 11th goal of the season. Sanheim was trying to pass to a teammate after the Flyers won a defensive zone faceoff, but his errant try went right to the stick of Kreider all alone in front of the net.
The Rangers went ahead 3-0 7:41 into the second period when Zibanejad finished another 2-on-1, this time poking the puck over Hart’s right shoulder after another setup from Wheeler.
Philadelphia got on the board with 2:21 left in the second when Couturier deflected home Nick Seeler’s shot from the point.
It looked as if Kreider had padded the Rangers’ lead to three goals when he beat Hart with a backhander after a pass from Zibanejad with 6 1/2 minutes to play, but the goal was overturned after video review showed Kreider was offside when receiving the pass.
Hart had 16 saves.
FIGHT NIGHT
Philadelphia’s Garnet Hathaway was involved in two first-period fights, scrapping with Barclay Goodrow about five minutes into the contest before squaring off with Will Cuylle with just under three minutes remaining. The first duel came after Hathaway was leveled by Rangers defenseman Jacob Trouba on a mid-ice hit. Hathaway returned the favor, delivering a hard hit to Ryan Lindgren in front of the Rangers bench that led to Cuylle’s response.
NOTES: Philadelphia D Rasmus Ristolainen (undisclosed) has missed every game this season. … The Rangers are four wins from 3,000 in franchise history. … The Flyers dropped to 24-9-5 on Black Friday. … There were many Rangers fans in attendance among the near-sellout crowd.
UP NEXT
Rangers: Host Boston on Saturday afternoon.
Flyers: At New York Islanders on Saturday night.
___
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl