Flyers can’t shake Lundqvist, Rangers win Classic 3-2

Brayden Schenn scored his first career NHL goal in Monday's Winter Classic. The Rangers defeated the Flyers 3-2. Photo/AP

By Chris DiFrancesco, Phila Phans’ Flyers beat writer

In arguably the most exciting Winter Classic game to date, Henrik Lundqvist and the New York Rangers defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 in front of a sold-out 46,967 fans inside Citizens Bank Park.

King Lundqvist’s 34-saves put the Flyers away to help his Rangers stay atop the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference.

“They won a big game. We battled hard,” Danny Briere said. “He’s definitely a good goalie. Sometimes, there’s matchups that there’s teams you can’t seem to lose against and other teams you struggle against to get wins.

“One thing I know, you get to the playoffs and it doesn’t mean anything. We start from scratch.”

Brayden Schenn scored his first National Hockey League goal and Claude Giroux notched his 18th goal of the season; however, they weren’t able to hold off the Rangers’ scoring attack in the second and third period.

The recently irrelevant Mike Rupp scored two second period goals while Brad Richards was able to sneak the eventual game-winner by Sergei Bobrovsky early in the third period.

For the third straight time this season the Flyers have suffered the same result, a loss. Unfortunately, the third one happened on the league’s biggest stage.

The Flyers had the perfect opportunity to tie the game at 3-3 with 19.6 seconds remaining in regulation when Briere was awarded a penalty shot after Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh covered the puck in the crease.

Briere went five-hole but Lundqvist read it and shut the door. That was all she wrote for the Flyers.

The clocked ticked to all zeros and the Flyers fell to 0-2 in the Winter Classic and failed to regain their spot atop the division.

What made matters worse for Philadelphia is the fact that Jaromir Jagr played just two shifts in the final 40 minutes of the game and not making one appearance in the third period. At one point, Jagr left the ice and headed to the Flyers locker-room but returned shortly after.

GM Paul Holmgren stated Monday night Jagr suffered a lower-body injury and will be day-to-day.

Flyers starter Sergei Bobrovsky, who started the Classic over Ilya Bryzgalov, was having a sound performance until Rupp’s two goals occurred. After his second tally at 2:41 of the third period, a major momentum swing shifted to the Rangers.

It was a horrible goal, enough said. Bobrovsky should’ve easily sucked it up and he didn’t. Less than three minutes later Richards collected a juicy rebound and pounded it past Bobrovsky to put the Rangers up for good.

“Give New York credit,” Laviolette said. “They picked up their game in the third period. We didn’t play the third period like we did the first two.”

After an uneventful first period, the game picked up steam in the second period when Schenn punched home a rebound after a Matt Carle shot at 12:26. It’s been a rough and tough season for Schenn, who came over to Philadelphia in the Mike Richards trade, but he’s hung through and it was special to him get his first career NHL goal at the Winter Classic.

“It feels great,” Schenn said. “Scoring in a big game like that is pretty exciting. At the same time, it would have been nice to win – that would have made the goal even better.”

Hard to believe Schenn’s goal gave the Flyers their first lead against the Rangers this season.

Giroux’s 18th goal of the season put the Flyers ahead 2-0 two minutes later. Max Talbot sent a perfect saucer pass to a streaking Giroux who went backhand an up top over Lundqvist.

The momentum shift started less than a minute later when Rupp’s first goal of the game came off a shot from the high-slot that beat a screened Bobrovsky. That sparked the Rangers comeback that caught the Flyers by surprise.

Perhaps this was loss provided a proverbial wake-up call for the Flyers, who now know they have to find a different way to get win over the Rangers of New York.

“They can win these regular season games,” Giroux said. “We got to learn from what we do during the season. It’s a long-season … We’re a young team with a lot of new players and we’re trying to get better every game, every practice.

“At the end of the day, it’s who’s most ready for the playoffs. We proved it two years ago as the eighth seed and went to the Stanley Cup Final. This game will just make us better.”

Before this game, the Flyers had an 18-0-1 record when leading after two periods. The Flyers blew a two-goal lead and ultimately surrendered three unanswered goals.

“It’s disappointing,” said Talbot, who played in his third Winter Classic game. “It’s not just a game, but a big show and a great event and its two points in the standings of a rivalry game.

“Yes, it’s disappointing to lose this game.”

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Posted by Chris DiFrancesco on Jan 3 2012. Filed under Breaking News, Chris DiFrancesco, Featured News, Flyers/NHL, NHL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.