NEW YORK \u2013 Matvei Michkov vowed he would do better down the stretch.<\/p>\n
No one can doubt that for now.<\/p>\n
The Flyers\u2019 young Russian scored twice, including the overtime winner, as Philadelphia rallied for a 3-2 victory over the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
And this win, in which they overcame a 2-0 deficit, ended the Flyers\u2019 eight-game losing streak in games going past regulation.<\/p>\n
These were two valuable points and the Flyers can thank a confident Michkov for the win. His translator was not on this trip, so it was up to his teammates and his coach to sing his praises.<\/p>\n
The overtime goal was a sensational play. Michkov broke in on goaltender Igor Shesterkin, made a deke and slid the puck through the five-hole.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean that second one was just a hell of a goal,\u201d coach Rick Tocchet said after the game. \u201cShesterkin is a hell of a goalie. He went five-hole, he sold it. That\u2019s the stuff that he can do.\u201cHopefully this will [get him going]. So he\u2019s getting some confidence here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Travis Konecny knows what Michkov can do. After all, he led the Flyers in goals with 26 last season.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s playing great, he looks fast,\u201d Konecny said. \u201cHe looks like he\u2019s confident with the puck.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Flyers need more efforts like this if they want to stay in the hunt for a playoff spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe second, third period, overtime we were just kind of playing our game,\u201d Noah Cates said. \u201cPlaying north, making it hard for them. We know how big the points are. A bunch of must-wins. We have to make up some ground. Especially division opponents. It\u2019s good for this group to play that way and get ready for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zegras feels the same way about the urgency factor.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwenty-five games left, they\u2019re all playoff games for us,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have to do something special down the stretch to get in. We all know that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier, the Flyers gave up one goal on a harmless shot from above the circles, then surrendered another on a defensive blunder before they started their comeback.<\/p>\n
First they got a power-play goal from Michkov at 10:25 of the second period, followed by a tying goal from Zegras by way of a nice outlet pass from Konecny 39 seconds into the third period.<\/p>\n
Goaltender Sam Ersson allowed that crazy first New York goal, then settled down and played rather well after that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been in a lot of these close games,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cIt\u2019s a big two points for us. I love \u2018Ers.\u2019 Obviously a tough first goal. But he battled. I think after him letting that [first] goal in, him diggin\u2019 in, he should have a lot of confidence. We told him goals like that are going to happen. That\u2019s where you have to have resolve. We\u2019ll get him in there again and see how he goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
The only goal of the first period came on the aforementioned fluke shot by the Rangers\u2019 Sam Carrick. He worked free from a check along the boards above the circle and sent a looping puck past a stunned Ersson at 9:56.<\/p>\n
This was Ersson\u2019s first action since a game at Boston (a 6-3 loss) on Jan. 29.<\/p>\n
The Rangers made it 2-0 at 1:23 of the second on a goal from Alex Lafreniere, who was left wide open in front. Then the Flyers began their big comeback.<\/p>\n
Andrae back<\/p>\n
After sitting out the last five games before the Olympics break, defenseman Emil Andrae was back in the lineup on Thursday night.<\/p>\n
Andrae entered the game at plus-11, second-best on the team and tops among defensemen.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he played his best hockey when he was first called up,\u201d\u00a0 Tocchet said before the game. \u201cHe\u2019s good on the breakout, good at wheeling the puck which is good. It\u2019s just when he tries to do too much. Making passes in the middle of the ice. Being out of position. That\u2019s growing as a young defenseman.\u201d<\/p>\n
Penalty killers killing it<\/p>\n
Since Jan. 10, the Flyers headed into Thursday night\u2019s game fifth in the NHL in penalty kill percentage at 88.5 percent. They had allowed only three PP goals in the last 10 games.<\/p>\n
Shorthanded leaders<\/p>\n
Since Dec. 20, the Flyers have led the NHL in shorthanded goals with five.<\/p>\n
Short shots<\/p>\n
The Flyers head home to face the Boston Bruins on Saturday. It\u2019s a 3 p.m. start. \u2026 Cam York entered Thursday night\u2019s game needing one point to reach the 100 milestone. \u2026 Rangers coach Mike Sullivan, who coached Team USA to the gold medal in the recent Winter Olympics, received a big hand from the Garden crowd before the game.<\/p>\n
Wayne Fish is a freelance writer. Follow his coverage at www.flyingfishhockey.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2013 Matvei Michkov vowed he would do better down the stretch. No one can doubt that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5111],"tags":[5,3328,35,5190,5193,4,56,36,43,5095],"class_list":{"0":"post-475067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-rangers","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-rangers","11":"tag-newyork","12":"tag-newyorkrangers","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","15":"tag-rangers","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116142735890899577","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}