The New York Rangers defeated the Philadelphia Flyers Sunday afternoon 4–1 at Madison Square Garden with help from a familiar face and a newly signed free agent—Sean Avery and Nik Antropov respectively.
Playing inspired hockey in the world’s most famous arena, Avery kicked things off in the first period, scoring his first goal of the game and added his second in the third, giving him seven goals on the season and four in the past three games. Both goals came during Ranger power plays.
Speaking with newyorkrangers.com, Sean Avery admitted that this second chance with the Rangers is something special and not to be taken for granted, “I feel good about just being out playing, and trying to play hard and get some wins.
“And every time I get to walk into the Garden, it’s special. It was almost gone for me, so I am definitely grateful for this opportunity.”
The game was tight for two periods after the Rangers led by one but they would eventually pull away in the third period.
The Flyers tried their best to hang in this one, getting on to the scoreboard in the second period after winger Simon Gagne scored his 27th goal of the season.
But the Flyers’ hopes would be dashed minutes later, courtesy of newly acquired Nik Antropov who put the Blueshirts back up by two goals, after scoring off another Rangers power play.
Starting the third period, Avery would strike again and teammate Fredrik Sjostrom would net his seventh of the season, shutting the door on Philly and putting the Rangers up by three.
The fiery Sean Avery was confident that his team’s recent winnings are no fluke, “I think we are starting to believe that we are a good team. I don’t think we really believed that as much as we should. We are a good team.”
Rangers netminder Henrik Lundqvist was sharp in goal, stopping 24 of 25 shots.
For the seventh place Blueshirts, this victory was sweet after a disappointing 4–2 loss in Philadelphia on Saturday.
They could ill afford to lose two in a row to their conference rivals and made sure they didn’t. With the win, the Rangers kept up their strong play under new head coach John Tortorella. They’ve won five of seven games under ‘Torts.’
