NEW YORK – As the red light went on after seldom-scoring Simon Benoit’s second-period goal entered the net, the Flyers must have thought it was going to be their night.
But it wasn’t.
The Flyers were trailing the New York Rangers by a 1-0 score at the time when Benoit connected for his first goal of the season past a Noah Cates screen at 10:10.
Then Noel Acciari made it 2-1 at 12:09.
But the Rangers rallied to score twice late in the third period and went on to hand the Flyers a 3-2 loss at Madison Square Garden. It was the first comeback win of the year for the Rangers.
First, New York tied it when Denver Barkey took a bad penalty and the Rangers got a power-play goal from Pavel Dorofeyev at 13:52. Then the Rangers picked up the winning goal from Tye Kartye with 4:39 to play.
The Flyers’ post-game locker room was understandably subdued. This one hurt.
Naturally, the main topic of discussion was why the Flyers let their foot off the gas so dramatically.
“You know I think the third period, we were a little bit more on our heels than we were the other two periods,” Acciari said. “I think we were trying to defend a lead rather than just play the game. Kind of do what made us successful the other two periods.
“Maybe we needed to keep the foot on the gas. Kind of keep doing what got us there.”
Coach Rick Tocchet didn’t sound too happy when expressing his feelings.
“When you’re not going to score on your chances, we had breakaways and stuff when you’re up 2-1. You’ve got to protect the interior of the ice. For whatever reason, when pressure hits us, we forget that.”
The coach has been going over this stuff in practice but apparently the message is not sinking in.
“It’s something that we’re going to have to continue to preach,” Tocchet said. “And go through this because that’s winning hockey, protecting the middle of the ice. For a while I thought we were in control of the game. That’s when you’ve got to really dig in. Protect the middle of the ice, that’s Hockey 101 for me.
“It’s frustrating because you’re trying to win under these circumstances. We failed tonight.”
Travis Sanheim said the Flyers can’t afford to just sit on a lead.
“It’s kind of frustrating,” Sanheim offered. “You hate to give up that next one (New York’s third goal). You’d like to lock it down, at least get it to overtime and get a point out of it.”
It was the Flyers’ 10th regulation time loss. Only Chicago and Vancouver have more.
Sanheim was asked if the Flyers sagged a bit after New York’s second goal.
“It’s unfortunate,” he said. “We have to find a way to lock it down. Learn from our mistakes. There’s a lot of good stuff we did tonight. Try to take that out of the game and move forward.
Barkey is known for making smart plays. Committing the infraction that led to the Rangers’ second goal wasn’t one of them.
That was all part of the Flyers’ late nosedive.
“I think it was us getting away from our game,” Barkey said. “I think we were kind of on our heels in the third. We were watching the play more than going and getting the puck. I think when we’re playing on our toes we’re at our best. If we get the lead, maybe watching too much. Take penalties and that’s what happened tonight.”
As usual, the Flyers allowed an opponent to score first.
The Rangers connected at the 4:39 mark. Marcus Pettersson set up shop at the blue line. His shot bounced off J.T. Miller, changed directions, then hit Gabe Perreault and eluded goaltender Joseph Woll.
Woll was sharp in the first period, particularly on a shot by Kartye from point-blank range. Woll had to dive hard to his right and sprawl to make the stop.
>Short shots
The Flyers head to Calgary for the second game of the five-game road trip, which begins on Sunday. Actually, the next three games are against Western Conference teams – the Flames, Vancouver, Edmonton. Last year the Flyers were 21-7-4 against the Western Conference.
Barkey’s goal against Minnesota on Tuesday marked Philadelphia’s 15th goal by a player 21 years old or younger. The only team with more players for that distinction are the San Jose Sharks (23).
Oliver Bonk’s average ice time of 18:44 is second only to Cole Hutson. . .Matvei Michkov’s eight goals since Oct. 15 are second in the NHL to Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl.
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