Wayne Simmonds sparks Flyers' win to force Game 7 vs. Rangers

They talked about a different attitude. One with a little vim and vinegar. They talked about making Henrik Lundqvist do some work. Make some saves. Move for some rebounds. They talked about playing the kind of Flyers hockey they played in the second half of the regular season to earn a playoff berth but hadn’t been seen yet in these playoffs.

“The passion and skating and tenacity was really good tonight,” coach Craig Berube said.

Everything came together Tuesday night in Game 6, as the Flyers thumped the Rangers 5-2 at Wells Fargo Center to set up Wednesday’s Game 7 in New York at Madison Square Garden (see Instant Replay).

“I’ve been to one in junior but never in the NHL,” Jakub Voracek said. “It’s do or die like it was today for us, just got to go and see what happens.”

The Rangers could have closed the Flyers out. Now the Flyers can close them out.

Wayne Simmonds had a big Game 6 with his first career playoff hat trick (see story). No player in the NHL had ever scored a playoff hat trick on Lundqvist until now (see video).

Who knows what’s in store for Wednesday?

“We take the positives from this and keep it rolling into [Wednesday] night,” Simmonds said. “It’s great that we’re having it back to back. The other games, we had a couple days off.

“That’s why you saw the series go one, one, one, one. Teams had time to regroup. Now we've got the momentum and can keep our foot on the pedal.”

He didn’t do it alone. Actually, the guy who carried the bulk of the load was goalie Steve Mason, who faced 36 shots and was nothing short of spectacular (see highlights).

Mason had two point-blank saves on Rick Nash and Anton Stralman. Plus, he added one enormous momentum save on Benoit Pouliot during a Rangers power play that ended seconds later with Erik Gustafsson bursting out of the penalty box for a breakaway goal that made it 3-0 and pretty much ended the game in the second period (see story).

Gustafsson was the replacement for Hal Gill who was the replacement for Nick Grossmann (ankle surgery).

“The whole game he was great and he has to be,” Berube said. “Our whole team did a much better job in the first period. We were more aggressive and got that [power-play] goal, which was huge and it put us in a good spot the rest of the game.”

He said the Flyers displayed more “passion” in this game.

“A more aggressive mindset that brings it out,” Berube added. “Our guys want to win. They brought a little more tonight, more tenacity in staying in the battles for loose pucks and blocking shots. You need that in the playoffs.”

Berube pushed the right buttons in this one with the addition of Gustafsson on defense and line changes that saw Michael Raffl on Claude Giroux’s line with Voracek and Scott Hartnell playing with Brayden Schenn and Simmonds (see 10 observations).

All those players combined for five goals and five assists for 10 points in the victory.

This win likely puts a little element of doubt in the Rangers’ minds.

This will be the Rangers' fourth Game 7 over the past three playoffs.

“Game 7s are what brings the best out in people,” the Rangers’ Brad Richards said. “It’ll be a hard-fought battle. We’re going home. We’ve had success in Game 7s, especially a lot of these guys in this room. That’s why we battled hard right to the end to get home ice.”

The Flyers feel since they won Game 2 up there, and have staked their claim all season as a team that plays best with its backs to the wall, they can do just that once again on Wednesday.

“We have a lot of character in this room and when we play a team game and the chemistry is doing very good on the ice, I think that’s when we’re successful,” Giroux said.

“Going back to the start of the year I think that’s what we were missing -- just playing as a team, everybody getting in the zone of the game and moving the puck. I think tonight was our best game of the series and hopefully it keeps going for Game 7.”

- Tim Panaccio, CSN Philly