The New York Rangers christened their Hometown Remix jerseys with perhaps their most inspiring victory of the season, scoring twice in the third period to defeat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night.
The Flyers carried a 2-1 lead into the third period and kept the home side from generating much offense until Flyers forward Denver Barkey was called for slashing at 13:13. Pavel Dorofeyev’s power-play goal at 13:52 got the Rangers even at 2-2 and woke up the Garden.
The full house of 18,006 got even louder 1:29 later when Tye Kartye took advantage of a bad line change by the Flyers, snagged a sensational pass by Adam Fox and went in alone before beating Joseph Woll to put New York ahead to stay.
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It was the first come-from-behind win by the Rangers this season. Dylan Garand finished with 23 saves, allowing only second-period goals by Simon Benoit and Noel Acciari. Woll stopped 24 shots.
The Rangers improved to 9-7-2 and won for the NHL-leading eighth time on home ice (8-2-0). They also improved to 14-3-2 in their last 19 games against their Metropolitan Division rivals, who fell to 4-10-4.
The Blueshirts will take a two-game winning streak with them when they head to Seattle for a Saturday matinee against the surprising Kraken that begins a four-game trip through the Northwest.
Rangers score twice in third period to defeat Flyers 3-2
The Rangers came out ready to play, something that wasn’t always the case during their late October slide. Woll got his glove on an excellent chance by J.T. Miller from the slot one minute into the game, and Eeli Tolvanen tested him again a minute later.
New York continued to carry the play and was rewarded with the game’s first goal at 4:39.
Marcus Pettersson was moving left to right just inside the blue line and took a shot that Miller, stationed in the slot, got a piece of. The deflection nipped Perreault’s sweater as he battled foe position in front and went past Woll, who never saw it. The goal was changed from Miller to Perreault after the first period; either way, it gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead.
At that point, the Rangers were dominating play and had a 4-0 margin in high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick. They nearly doubled their lead at 9:18 when Dorofeyev beat Woll cleanly from the slot, only to see his shot clang off the right post.
The Flyers began to pick up their play as the period went on, and they dominated the last few minutes — forcing Garand to make a couple of sharp saves. The Rangers managed just one shot on goal in the final seven minutes and were fortunate to escape the first period up by a goal.
Each team had good opportunities early in the second period. The biggest save belonged to Flyers defenseman Nick Seeler, who swept the rebound of Adam Fox’s shot out of the crease an instant before Alexis Lafreniere could put it into an empty net. Miller came down left wing with Fox on a 2-on-1 break just over nine minutes into the period but fired wide.
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The captain and his teammates likely rued the missed opportunity when the Flyers scored twice in 1:59 midway through the period to take the lead.
Benoit tied the game 1-1 at 10:10 with his first goal in 104 games since March 10, 2025. His harmless-looking slap shot from the left point knuckled its way through traffic and caught the high corner past Garand’s glove.
Philadelphia went ahead 2-1 at 12:09 on a broken play. Barkey controlled the puck near the left point and tried to send it down low. But the puck hit a stick, throwing off almost everyone’s timing, before coming to Acciari to Garand’s right. Acciari spun and snapped a quick shot past Garand to put the Flyers in front for the first time.
Woll made a couple of good stops on Oliver Bjorkstrand before the Rangers got their first power play at 15:36 when Seeler was called for slashing. But New York did nothing with the extra man except draw some booing from the unhappy sellout Garden crowd.
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Braden Schneider gave the Flyers their first man advantage at 18:02 when he took a needless tripping penalty by chopping down Noah Cates. But the Flyers’ power play was no better than the Rangers’ had been, and the period ended with Philadelphia still leading 2-1.
The first 13 minutes of the third period were a snooze-fest, with the Flyers keeping the Rangers to the outside and New York failing to generate much offense. That all changed with Barkey’s penalty and the goals by Dorofeyev and Kartye that turned what would have been a disappointing loss into the type of victory that can give any team a big lift.
John Kreiser covered his first Rangers game (against the California Golden Seals) in November 1975 and is still going … More about John Kreiser
