Flyers lose 1-0 to the Rangers in overtime battle between goalies Carter Hart, Igor Shesterkin

NEW YORK ― The Flyers switched up the narrative with the turning of the calendar in their 1-0 overtime loss to the New York Rangers.

Before the game, coach John Tortorella said that while the team’s record was good, it “can’t keep living on that piece of property,” meaning the wins that came despite weak starts and fighting back from deficits.

In a change of pace, the Flyers came out strong defensively against the offensively talented Rangers. They not only went into the second period scoreless, but they also generated an equal amount of offense. Even in previous games where Carter Hart bailed out his teammates to keep the score at zero, the shot count was heavily skewed against the Flyers.

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But instead of coming out stronger in the second, the Flyers looked sluggish. They spent most of their time defending and were lucky to once again be tied at zero at the end of the second.

Things got heated between the teams, with the scrum lasting minutes after the buzzer. Following a lengthy discussion between captains Scott Laughton and Jacob Trouba and the officials, five penalties were handed out, two to the Flyers and three to the Rangers.

With the man-advantage, the Flyers got one shot off, but the Rangers killed it easily. The momentum helped them play a more even game, but Rangers goalie Igor Shesterkin controlled the game with a series of highlight-reel saves that sent the crowd into “Igor” chants.

“It’s [a] great experience for some guys to play in this building, the way the atmosphere was, and just stay within themselves,” Tortorella said. “That’s what I liked about it is that after an abysmal second period, I thought we gathered ourselves, and I thought we played a good third period.”

Shesterkin’s saves sent the game into overtime, where Chris Kreider scored the game-winning goal on a breakaway that slipped past Hart’s left glove.

The first period was pretty even — but not in a way where the Flyers and Rangers had chances to set up in the other’s offensive zone. Instead, both teams just raced back and forth.

The fast pace seemed to have more of an effect on the Flyers, despite all the conditioning they did before the season and the days off before the game. The Flyers came out significantly slower in the second and ended up stuck in the defensive zone for long shifts.

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A penalty kill drained them even more, especially since the Flyers couldn’t clear it. Laughton and Tony DeAngelo were stuck out there for 1 minute, 30 seconds, and Travis Konecny and Ivan Provorov couldn’t get off until there were just 24 seconds left.

That led to even more tired legs, which led to longer defensive shifts, which led tired them out even more. While they played well in the third, the wear showed in overtime when Kreider outraced Konecny, Provorov, and Kevin Hayes for the breakaway.

Tortorella is concerned with the heavy minutes the team played, and he said he’ll be playing defenseman Egor Zamula and Tanner Laczynski next for some fresh legs.

As the Rangers peppered the net with shots and wore the Flyers down, Hart was the only man standing between the Flyers and a huge deficit.

Hart once again faced a much heavier load than his counterpart did. In the second period alone, he faced 14 shots to Shesterkin’s four. Hart finished the night with 35 saves on 36 shots.

While Hart made some big saves on dangerous shots, he also had some help — from his teammates and the post. Halfway through the first period, a shot from the point went right past his toe. But the Ranger waiting in the blue paint missed the deflection, and it barely hit the post.

Late in the second, when the Rangers were pressuring, Joel Farabee got in the way of a player crashing while Hart wasn’t looking. The Flyers went on the power play shortly after but gave up numerous shorthanded chances. Hart was saved on Kreider’s shot by the goalpost.

Following a third-period Rangers power play, Alexis Lafrenière beat Hart for a completely open look at the net but hit the post.

“[Hart’s] obviously the big reason we got the point, in my opinion, and a couple of big posts there,” DeAngelo said. “We need to rely on him less.”

With a 12th-best power play percentage of 23.7 percent, the Rangers power play was ranked above the Tampa Bay Lightning unit that beat up the Flyers earlier in the season.

Through a combination of Hart’s skill, luck, and hard work by the penalty kill, the Flyers shut that down. They faced two power plays and five shots on the power play. Hart saved all of them, and Provorov and Noah Cates came up with blocks on two more. On the power play called in the last five minutes, the Flyers kept them from putting a single shot on net.

» READ MORE: Flyers defenseman Egor Zamula learning how to stick with the ‘big boys’

However, the Rangers returned the favor. The Flyers have scored a power play goal in six of their eight games, including the last two. They came into the game with the 17th-best power play.

The penalty kill rankings were the reverse. The Flyers were the 12th-best while the Rangers were ranked 18th. But both improved their percentages by preventing any power play goals from being scored in the game.

The Flyers head to Toronto for the second night of their back-to-back with a 7 p.m. game against the Maple Leafs.