Mason won't play Sunday

NEW YORK -- Flyers goalie Steve Mason, still bothered by an upper body injury suffered April 12 against Pittsburgh, won't play in Sunday's Game 2 of the opening round Stanley Cup playoff against the host New York Rangers.

Mason went through a full practice at Madison Square Garden this afternoon.

"For the most part I felt pretty solid and I am getting better every day but I won't play tomorrow," Mason said.

Toward the end of the practice Mason was laboring.

"Probably the last 10 minutes in practice, what was bothering me wasn't feeling very good," Mason said.

He then talked to coach Craig Berube and general manager Paul Holmgren and it was decided then that he wouldn't play. As in Game 1, Mason also won't serve as the backup.

Calvin Heeter served as the backup to Ray Emery in Game 1 and will do the same in Game 2. On Friday, Heeter traveled to Hershey to be with the Adirondack Phantoms for their final regular season game of the year.

Holmgren said he would be brought back.

Mason says his goal was to play in Game 3 on Tuesday in Philadelphia, but Berube couldn't speculate on his availability then.

"It is a day to day thing," Berube said. "He practiced today we are making decisions and we talked it over and he is not ready."