By Jim Cerny, newyorkrangers.com
For the second straight night a rough start against a quality opponent cost the Rangers two points in the standings, as the Blueshirts were defeated 3-2 by the Philadelphia Flyers Sunday evening at Madison Square Garden.
A pair of first-period goals by Philadelphia’s Jeff Carter and Ville Leino were the Rangers’ undoing on Sunday -- just 24 hours after the Canadiens rode a three-goal opening period to a 3-2 victory over the Rangers at Montreal.
“I think the last two games we started a little too late,” said Wojtek Wolski, who scored a goal and added an assist on Sunday. “We have shown in both games that we can come back and compete, and dominate periods, but we have to play full games. We can’t keep having starts like this.”
Just as they had done in Montreal, the Rangers did put forth a furious rally in the third period against the Flyers, scoring twice on goals by Wolski and Derek Stepan. But once again, the comeback fell one goal short.
“We were a little ragged, but we found ourselves,” said Rangers head coach John Tortorella. “In the second half of the game we had a lot of scoring chances, but we just couldn’t finish.”
First-period penalties hurt the Rangers on both nights. On Saturday the Canadiens scored their first two goals with a Rangers’ player sitting in the penalty box. And on Sunday ....
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STAT OF THE GAME
Mats Zuccarello recorded two assists to now rank third on the Rangers in scoring with seven points (two goals, five assists) in the12 games since he originally joined the team on Dec. 23.
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| (selected by newyorkrangers.com) |
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| 1. D. Stepan |
2. W. Wolski |
3. Zuccarello |
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