Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Rangers’ Georgiev impressive in shutout of Flyers

Lue5gp5jomwt
The Rangers hold the Flyers scoreless behind 29 saves from goaltender Alexandar Georgiev. New York snaps a six-game losing streak against Philadelphia.

In the twilight of Henrik Lundqvist’s career, it appears the New York Rangers can rest easy knowing they have a capable heir-apparent to begin filling his legendary shoes.

Alexandar Georgiev is a name the Rangers will be hoping can continue an upward trajectory, and the 23-year-old showed another flash of his skill on Sunday afternoon on NBC, shutting out the Philadelphia Flyers 3-0 on Star Sunday.

Georgiev turned aside 29 shots on his way to his 13th win of the season and second career shutout.

The Rangers came into the game losers of six straight against the Flyers and were at risk of getting swept by their Metropolitan Division rivals for the first time since the 1984-85 season. That didn’t happen as David Quinn’s young side -- the youngest current roster in the NHL at 25.7 years -- put together a solid performance, winning their second consecutive game for the first time since Jan. 19 when they won three straight.

Scoring on Sunday came from the Rangers current fountain of youth, with 23-year-old Pavel Buchnevich, 25-year-olds Ryan Strome and Brady Skjei all finding twine for the Blueshirts. A 21-year-old Brett Howden assisted on two goals.

The Flyers entered Sunday fresh of being eliminated from playoff contention 24 hours earlier after dropping a 5-2 decision to the Carolina Hurricanes. The emotion letdown of that was pretty evident from a team dealing with those thoughts and the fatigue playing the second half of a back to back brings.

Philly put in a valiant effort down the stretch. Changes at general manager and head coach will be a big story of the season, as will an eight-game losing streak where they ended up sitting in last place in the NHL. But they showed some promise after clawing back enough points to be relevant until the eve of the final week of the regular season. From Jan. 10 to March 11, they produced the third most points of any team in the NHL, trailing only the juggernaut Tampa Bay Lightning and the St. Louis Blues.

The Flyers will miss the postseason for the fourth time in the last seven years – after making the postseason 16 times in the prior 17 seasons from 1995 to 2012.

Like Georgiev and the Rangers, Carter Hart appears to the be future in Philadelphia. He didn’t have his best outing on Sunday, allowing three goals on 25 shots, but has been a revelation in a town known for its burgeoning goalie graveyard.

Hart came into the game with a .940 save percentage over his past five games.


Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck