Chris Kreider scored again to continue his hot start, Igor Shesterkin made 33 saves and the host New York Rangers continued their roll with a 4-1 victory over the skidding Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday night.
Kreider scored his 16th goal on the first shift of the third period when he dove for the puck and lifted a wrist shot from the low slot by Philadelphia goaltender Carter Hart. It was Kreider’s ninth goal in his past 12 games, and he joined Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl and Washington’s Alex Ovechkin as the third player to score more than 15 goals so far.
Dryden Hunt scored a power-play goal in New York’s two-goal first period and then was assessed a game misconduct for charging shortly after Kreider’s latest goal. Defenseman Jacob Trouba also scored while Kappo Kakko collected two assists as the Rangers won for the eighth time in nine games.
Artemi Panarin finished it off with an empty-net tally after stripping the puck from Philadelphia’s Claude Giroux with 44 seconds remaining.
Shesterkin became the third goaltender to reach 12 wins and helped the Rangers win four straight games for the third time this season by making 13 saves during three Philadelphia power plays. He heard chants of “Igor, Igor” all night and was named the game’s first star.
Morgan Frost scored for the Flyers, who dropped their seventh straight game. Philadelphia also lost Joel Farabee to an upper-body injury after he slammed into the boards about 8 1/2 minutes into the opening period.
Hart allowed three goals on 27 shots.
Kreider’s latest goal occurred 34 seconds into the second period when Shesterkin made 15 saves. Eight of those were during Philadelphia’s five-minute power play, including two with Trouba’s stick after Shesterkin lost his stick in the corner.
During Philadelphia’s extended man advantage, Shesterkin stopped Sean Couturier, Scott Laughton, Morgan Frost, Keith Yandle once and made two saves apiece on Cam Atkinson and Giroux.
Trouba opened the scoring 3:41 into the game when he ripped a slap shot from the middle of the ice near the neutral zone through traffic over Hart’s glove.
About 30 seconds after Hart used his glove to snatch his point-blank opportunity, Hunt scored by switching to his forehand while warding off a check by defenseman Ivan Provorov and putting a wrist shot from the right circle under Hart’s pads.
–Field Level Media