Couturier's line delivers in Game 6

Flyers coach Craig Berube used the home-ice advantage for favorable matchups Tuesday night, and the best consisted of his third line against the Rangers' most potent line in their playoff series.

The defensive play of center Sean Couturier and wingers Matt Read and Jason Akeson against a Rangers line that had been giving them fits was one reason the Flyers are heading to Wednesday's deciding Game 7 at Madison Square Garden.

The Rangers' line of center Derek Stepan and wingers Rick Nash and Martin St. Louis was silenced as the Flyers scored a 5-2 win at the Wells Fargo Center.

Now, with the series tied at three games apiece, Wednesday's winner will face the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round.

With the Stepan line starting the game, Berube countered with the Couturier line. And for the second straight game at the Wells Fargo Center, the Rangers' potent trio was held without a point.

In the four other games in this series, the Stepan line has a combined four goals and 10 assists.

"It is a tough line to play against, and tonight we did a good job trying to limit their offense, but they had a couple of scoring chances and we have to be better," said Couturier, who also won 60 percent of his faceoffs.

Though Couturier had two key giveaways early, he settled down and so did the Flyers. Goalie Steve Mason kept the Flyers in the game with 13 first-period saves in earning a 1-0 lead at intermission.

With three second-period goals, the Flyers had one of their best periods of this postseason.

In addition, Couturier and Read have been a highly effective penalty-killing duo, a carryover from the regular season.

One of the penalties had to be killed without Couturier, who was assessed two minutes for hooking Nash with 13 minutes, 50 seconds remaining in the second period.

The Rangers were 0 for 5 on the power play. New York has failed to score on its last 20 power-play chances.

"I think we did a good job, took away some shooting and passing lanes, and got clears when we had a chance," Couturier said of the penalty-killing unit.

Two other forwards who were effective penalty killers were Michael Raffl and Adam Hall.

"We work great together," Raffl said about being paired with Hall. "Mason is playing great in net, and that gives us confidence."

Others contributed, but Couturier, Read, Raffl, and Hall did the bulk of the duty for the forwards.

Defensemen Kimmo Timonen and Braydon Coburn also had major penalty-killing roles.

The Flyers' penalty killers were effective in forechecking the Rangers and not allowing them to pick up steam.

New York has gone four games without scoring a power-play goal, frustrated by the Flyers' penalty killers.