Craig Berube after Flyers' comeback: 'They don't give up'

The Rangers have three power-play goals so far in the series, but they could have had oodles more Easter Sunday after the Flyers gave them six power plays.

Were it not for some outstanding penalty killing in the second period, the Flyers could have easily lost this game. Instead, they won 4-2.

In the second period, the Flyers survived 1:38 of a 4-on-3 Rangers power play, which was a pivotal game-changing moment, as the Flyers scored after that kill to go ahead 3-2 and never looked back.

Michael Raffl, Sean Couturier, Adam Hall and Braydon Coburn all played significant roles rotating during the 4-on-3 situation, which saw two Flyers defensemen in the box -- Kimmo Timonen and Andrew MacDonald.

“Our penalty killing came up big for us,” Ray Emery said. “Took some penalties early on and they did a good job out there blocking bodies and getting some clears.”

Raffl and Couturier actually moved pucks along the boards rather than attempt a shorthanded chance, cycling back and forth and chewing up the clock.

“If you don’t have a good shorthanded chance," Berube said, "it makes more sense if you’re not going to get a good shot there, to just kill out the clock."

Couturier logged a game-high 7:16 shorthanded ice time, in part because four of the nine penalties the Flyers took were to their defensemen who play on the PK.

There simply weren’t enough bodies to put out there so Couturier logged the extra minutes.

“Our PK was better than the last game,” Couturier said. “We were really disappointed how we killed. Today we did a better job, but I think there’s still room for improvement.

“We’ve got to do a better job of being more disciplined. Taking six or seven penalties is going to cost us at some point.”

Your biggest penalty killer is your goaltender and Emery got progressively stronger as the game went on. The Rangers’ attempted to make Emery move post to post, where he has been slow to get over and cover.

The Rangers have scored four such goals in the series and are so intent on making cross-ice passes that they are actually passing up shots.

One Flyer said they are making the extra pass just to get Emery moving laterally.

Well, Emery got stronger in the last two periods and shut the Rangers down.

“You have to give credit, Ray Emery played a pretty good game,” Marty St. Louis said.

This was Emery’s first playoff win in exactly three years, April 20, 2011 -- when his Anaheim team beat Nashville, 6-3.

One New York writer asked Berube whether he might stick with Emery even if Steve Mason can start in Game 3.

“Well, we will look at that when it comes about,” Berube said. “Right now, we are at where we are and not thinking that far ahead.”

Emery said if that happens, he has no issues with Mason going back in because he understands his role. It’s no different here with the Flyers than what it was with Chicago last season.

He also said he wasn’t rattled after the Rangers' early 2-0 lead, either.

“I try to stay even keel whether it is  going well or not off to the start you want,” Emery said. “I play within the system and rely on that. I’ve been down before and it’s all about the approach.

“We needed to do this. They had home ice in the series, this is a tough place to come  into, but we know our building is tough to come into. We’re happy with a split. We got to refocus for back home.”

-- Tim Panaccio, CSNPhilly.com