Flyers rally for ‘awesome point,’ and key numbers from a frenetic OT loss at the Rangers

NEW YORK — The Flyers ended their seven-game gauntlet with a valuable consolation point after a barn burner against a New York Rangers team that became the first team in the NHL to clinch a Stanley Cup playoff spot with a 6-5 overtime win.

Yes, it was a loss but once again the Orange and Black went toe-to-toe with a Cup contender Tuesday and showed that they can run-and-gun with the big boys. They finished their stretch against the top teams in the Eastern Conference with a 2-3-2 record.

“Everyone’s always pulling on the same string here,” center Scott Laughton said. “We keep that positivity and keep going like this, we’re going to be on the positive side of it.”

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The Flyers remain in third place in the Metropolitan Division, one point ahead of the Washington Capitals (who won on Tuesday), going into Wednesday’s NHL games.

Here are some key numbers from the Flyers’ overtime loss.

Entering the night, the Flyers averaged 33.2 shots per game — tied with the Pittsburgh Penguins for third most. Actual goals scored? Eh, not so great. But when you send a barrage of pucks, eventually good things will happen.

The Flyers sent 42 shots on goal in this one and scored five times — one of those technically went off the post and then off Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin before crossing the goal line. They also had 17 shots that missed the net and 18 that were blocked.

“Any shot can go in so you kind of want to get the last shot,” said winger Owen Tippett who scored the bank shot. “It adds excitement to the game, but obviously, you don’t want to get into games like that often.”

Don’t let the fact that the Flyers entered the game tied for the ninth-fewest goals per game in the NHL (2.89) fool you. This team can put the biscuit in the basket.

Five times on Tuesday they got the puck past Shesterkin, a perpetual Vezina Trophy contender. And each goal was scored in a somewhat different fashion: Laughton scored from the right faceoff circle; Ryan Poehling tapped in a feed on a pretty passing play for a power-play goal; Travis Konecny kept the puck and picked his spot on a two-on-one; Tippett scored a bank shot on a breakaway after receiving a beautiful saucer pass from Morgan Frost; and Tyson Foerster knocked in a loose puck after Garnet Hathaway’s shot was scooped off the goal line.

“I think it was a pretty tight game, all the way up until the second intermission,” Tippett said. “Obviously, the goal-scoring kind of opened up in the third but still thought we played a good game. We’ve never backed down and got a point out of it. Just goes to show that, if we stick with our mindset, good things happen.”

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After going up 2-0, the Flyers were staring at a 3-2 deficit just 2 minutes, 57 seconds into the third period. Yes, they gave up six goals, but they tied it up at 3-3, 4-4, and finally at 5-5.

“That was a crazy third period after a fairly, not a lot going in the first 40,” said associate coach Brad Shaw, who handled postgame news conference in place of John Tortorella. “They scored some big goals. I just loved how we battled back. It was quite a roller coaster, up and down, highs and lows. But the fact that we kept scratching and clawing to get back into that game and get a point. It’s an awesome point. It’s an awesome effort by everybody.”

It seemed at times, in the first period especially, that the Flyers were controlling play deep in the Rangers zone. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Flyers held 60% of the shot attempts in the game at five-on-five. In the first period, it was 57.14%; in the second period 55.88%; and in the third period, it was 66.67%. If you count all strengths, the Flyers held a 57.94% advantage in shot attempts.

“Yeah, I think we had two really good periods,” goaltender Sam Ersson said. “The third period, kind of got a couple of unlucky bounces it felt like and that kind of started a back and forth, a little bit. But I feel like we did a good job handling that, coming back, and grabbing a point here. Obviously, we wanted two, but we’ve got to take the positive things for us and move on.”

Breakdown of shot attempts at five-on-five showing the Flyers leading the way. Courtesy: Natural Stat Trick.

Entering the season, Tortorella said he wasn’t sure if Cam York was an NHL defenseman. Now the kid from Anaheim, Calif., is more often than not leading the Flyers in ice time. On Tuesday, he played a game-high 27:21, marking the 15th straight game he has played more than 20 minutes.

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The last time York played less than 20 minutes was Feb. 24 against the Rangers at the Wells Fargo Center, when he played 19:39. The next day, Jamie Drysdale got hurt against the Pittsburgh Penguins and York, who averaged 21:40 in the first 58 games, has seen that rise to 25 minutes in the 15 games since.

He was on the ice for two goals against — one being a shorthanded marker by Vincent Trocheck that came from a ridiculous pump-fake into a drag-and-pull pass by Mika Zibanejad — and two goals for.

Each of the two overtime losses — the Flyers were handed a 3-2 overtime loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday — had the same two forwards start overtime.

Poehling and Noah Cates started each overtime and on Tuesday they got burned when Adam Fox scored 36 seconds into the extra session. Thursday it was Seth Jarvis just 88 seconds into OT, with Laughton and Joel Farabee as the two forwards on.

“Poehls has been one of our best two-way players for the last probably 2-3 months, so he’s got a chance to win the faceoff and plus he’s responsible at both ends of the rink,” said Shaw when questioned as to why the Flyers started Poehling and Cates instead of the likes of Konecny, Tippett or Frost. “He’s played well offensively and defensively and so he’s earned the right to get out there; obviously, didn’t end the way we wanted. I think he’s the right guy to put out there. ... And so, we have guys that we feel are going to play both ends of the rink really well and it didn’t work out.”