Flyers 2, Rangers 1
PHILADELPHIA -- Braydon Coburn scored the tiebreaking goal 3:33 into the third period to lift the Philadelphia Flyers to a 2-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Thursday night.
Back on the ice following a season-high six-day break, the Flyers snapped a four-game losing streak with only their second win in nine games to start the season.
Matt Read also scored for Philadelphia and goaltender Steve Mason made 30 saves.
Brad Richards had New York's goal. The Rangers are 2-6 with one game remaining on their nine-game road trip.
Shortly after Philadelphia failed to score during a five-minute man-advantage, Coburn gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead when he blasted a shot from just inside the blue line through a screen by Wayne Simmonds and past goalie Cam Talbot.
The Rangers had a tying goal by J.T. Miller overturned following a video review that showed he kicked the puck in during a power-play chance.
Talbot made 25 saves in his NHL debut filling in for Henrik Lundqvist. The three-time All-Star and former Vezina Trophy winner is out with an undisclosed injury.
Read scored his first goal this season on a short-handed breakaway to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead in the first. Read picked up a loose puck after a turnover at Philadelphia's blue line, skated in and shot one between Talbot's legs.
Richards tied it at 1 on his team-high fifth goal with 1:04 left. Richards fired a shot from a sharp angle along the left boards and the puck deflected in off Flyers Coburn's shin.
A few minutes earlier, New York's Derek Dorsett got the best of Zac Rinaldo in a heavyweight fight that seemed to energize the Rangers.
Tempers flared again in the second period with several players pushing and shoving. Simmonds landed a flurry of punches on Brandon Mashinter when they squared off.
Vincent Lecavalier was back in the lineup for the Flyers for the first time since suffering a lower-body injury Oct. 11. Lecavalier switched from center to right wing to play on Philadelphia's top line with captain Claude Giroux.
The Rangers killed off a five-minute penalty after Benoit Pouliot got a major for boarding Max Talbot late in the second. Max Talbot, with blood dripping from his nose, quickly skated off the ice but returned in the third period with bandages on his face.
The victory was only the third for the Flyers in the last 14 games against the Rangers, dating to March 6, 2011.
NOTES: Besides Lundqvist, the Rangers were missing RW Ryan Callahan (thumb), LW Rick Nash (head) and LW Carl Hagelin (shoulder). ... Lecavalier missed three games. Flyers LW Scott Hartnell, who sustained an upper-body injury the same night Lecavalier got hurt, remains sidelined. ... Read had 12 goals in 13 games against Talbot in college. Read went to Bemidji State. Talbot played at the Alabama-Huntsville. .. Philadelphia's two points through eight games represented a franchise worst at that point of a season. ... The Rangers complete their nine-game, 23-day road trip at Detroit on Saturday. They'll play their first home game Monday against the Montreal Canadiens. The unusual road trip was necessitated by extensive renovations at Madison Square Garden. ... The Flyers go on the road to face the New York Islanders on Satuday.
