Jake Voracek ties career high with four assists, Carter Hart stays hot for Flyers, and other quick takes | Marcus Hayes
The Flyers cooled the hot Rangers, who had won nine of 10 and nine straight on the road.
Flyers captain Claude Giroux opted out of the optional pre-game skate Friday morning then recorded his second two-goal game of the season in a 5-2 win over the scorching Rangers. Giroux has six goals and 14 points in his last 10 games, of which the Flyers have won eight. That includes the last five in a row, tying the season-best streak set Nov. 25-Dec. 3. The Rangers had won nine of their last 10 games and a franchise-record nine in a row on the road, a streak extended the night before in Montreal. The Flyers moved ahead of second-place in the Metropolitan Division ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins, who lost at Anaheim.
Gotta have Hart
Second-year goaltender Carter Hart moved to 18-2-2 at the Wells Fargo Center. He failed to snag a shot with his glove from Jesper Fast, the first shot of the game, and then Fast followed up nicely by batting the rebound out of the air, the second shot of the game, which gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead 2 minutes, 49 seconds into the game. Hart stopped the next 25 shots he saw, most of them superb chances, before giving up a goal with 25 seconds to play. Hart denied Jacob Trouba’s shot with a right-skate save with 1:46 left in the first period, smothered a point-blank blast from Artemis Panarin with 15:19 to play in the second, and fended off consecutive snipes in the middle of the second during a specious Rangers power play.
Generous Jake
Voracek dealt four assists for the third time in his career and the first time since Dec. 12, 2014 at Toronto. He had the primary assist on three of the Flyers’ five goals. “I remember that, yeah," Voracek said of the 2014 game. He was in a zone both nights: "Sometimes it just clicks. Before you even get the puck, you know what you’re going to do. On the other hand, sometimes the puck comes to you and it hits your skate or shaft, and you look like an idiot.”
Coooots!
Sean Couturier deposited his 20th goal of the season late in the first period, which gave him a third straight season with at least 20 goals. He has topped 30 goals in each of the two previous seasons. Couturier a stole the puck from Tony DeAngelo with 5:13 minutes to play in the second period, which led to Claude Giroux’s goal 18 seconds later that made it 3-1. He was a large part of the three successful penalty kills. The Flyers’ kill has snuffed 23 of 25 power plays in the last 10 games.
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