Kris Versteeg scored his first goal as a Flyer as he fired home an empty netter to seal a Flyers 4-2 win over the New York Rangers. Philadelphia had taken a 3-1 lead into the period, but were pretty much outplayed in the third as the Rangers' Derek Stepan cut the lead to 1 just over 5 minutes into the third. For the nearly the rest of the period, the Flyers did what could be best described as "hang on" as Brian Boucher recovered from a injury to finish strong and seal the Flyers fourth win over the Rangers this season.
Boucher was injured just before the Rangers' 3rd period goal on a benign looking play where he made a nice save... but collapsed afterward, writhing in obvious pain on the ice. The announcers never seemed to finally agree on exactly what happened to the Flyer goalie as it could have been the initial shot or a skate that clipped him. Boucher was able to get up and stay in the game, but just seconds after play resumed, Derek Stepan capitalized off a weird bounce off the boards to put one by Boucher, cutting the Flyers lead to 3-2.
Like I said at the top, the Flyers hung in for the remainder with Boucher recovering to make a number of nice saves to preserve the lead. He finished with 39 saves on the night.
With 45 seconds remaining, the Rangers pulled goalie Henrik Lundqvist in favor of the extra attacker and the newest Flyer Kris Versteeg made them pay. He collected a James VanReimsdyk pass and fired into the empty Ranger net from center ice to seal it for Philly.
One pretty amazing note form this game is that the Flyers had no penalties, marking only the third time in franchise history they've gotten through a game without a single guy heading into the box.
The three stars on the night were #1 Jeff Carter, #2 Claude Giroux and #3 Ryan Callahan (who had no goals or assists). No love for Boucher and his 39 saves?
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