A pair of turnovers cost the Philadelphia Flyers this afternoon in their Thanksgiving Showdown against the New York Rangers, who escaped Wells Fargo Center with a 3-2 win.
The Rangers opened the scoring at 13:16 of the first period, after Philadelphia’s Scott Laughton tried to make a pass behind his net, only to have it picked off by J.T. Miller. Miller then fed it in front to Derek Stepan, who ripped a one-timer past Steve Mason.
Matt Puempel, making his Rangers debut, scored less than two minutes later, converting a brilliant cross-ice feed from Jimmy Vesey.
Then, midway through the second period, it was 3-0, after an errant pass by Mark Streit led to a Kevin Hayes goal.
The first period was a boisterous affair, with a couple of fights (see: here and here) between the division rivals. Henrik Lundqvist was busy in the Rangers’ net, making a number of key saves before Stepan’s goal.
The Flyers made things interesting with third-period goals from Chris VandeVelde and Shayne Gostisbehere. But they couldn’t beat Lundqvist for a third time; he would finish with 40 saves.
All in all, it was a great bounce-back result for the Rangers (15-6-1), who got blasted, 6-1, by Pittsburgh on Wednesday at MSG.
As for the Flyers (9-10-3), they’ve now lost two straight, with just three wins in their last 10.
