Mason crafts Flyers win over Rangers; playoffs still viable

Special to the Phanatic

Philadelphia, PA --  Steve Mason posted 38 saves to notch his first  victory as a Flyer and help Philadelphia keep its slim playoff chances alive  with a 4-2  triumph over the New York Rangers on Tuesday at Wells Fargo Center.

Mason  had  dropped back-to-back decisions  since coming over from Columbus on April 3, but the 24-year-old netminder turned away all but one of the 17 shots he faced in the third to send the Flyers to their second straight victory.

After 43 games, the hosts finally saw one of their backups record a victory. Michael Leighton and Brian Boucher failed in their lone chances, while Mason came up empty in two previous starts on the road. 

"It  was an  important game for myself  and the team," Mason said. "This was a must-win  in terms  of the playoff race  with them being in the eighth playoff spot right now. That was a big win."

Kimmo  Timonen tallied  a  goal  and an  assist,  while  Brayden Schenn,  Erik Gustafsson  and  Jakub Voracek each  scored once for Philadelphia, which moved within five points of the Rangers for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with five games left.

Derek  Stepan and Mats Zuccarello netted a goal apiece, while Henrik Lundqvist allowed three goals on 21 shots for the Rangers, who had won two straight.

"We  just  couldn't solve Mason,"  Rangers coach John Tortorella admitted. "We developed some offense, we couldn't solve Mason."

With  46 points,  New  York sits  tied  with Winnipeg,  which  beat Tampa  Bay Tuesday,  for the No.  8 seed in the East. The Rangers, though, do have a game in hand.

The Orange and Black would have to win out, while seeing the Rangers and Jets suffer through a near-total collapse, in order to reach the playoffs for a sixth consecutive season.

New  York cut into its deficit just 2:54 into the second when Zuccarello fired a  wrister from  the right circle that  whizzed past Mason to make it 2-1, but the  Flyers  answered at the  midpoint of the frame  on Timonen's fifth of the year.

After  Rangers  winger Ryan Clowe was  whistled for boarding at the 9:42 mark, Claude  Giroux won  an offensive  zone faceoff  back to  the high  slot, where Timonen  stepped into  a one-timer that beat  Lundqvist low to the far side to restore Philadelphia's two-goal lead at the halfway point of the contest.

The  Rangers  again pulled within  a goal  at the 7:28  mark of the third when Stepan recovered a bouncing puck in the slot and pounded it past Mason.

However,  Mason,  who appeared  to  sustain  a  lower-body injury  during  the Rangers'  third-period flurry, was able to fight through the pain and keep the visitors  off  the board before Voracek  added an empty-netter with 14 seconds left.

“Oh yeah, you know, he was exactly the same as he was in the first year when he won the Rookie of the Year," Voracek said of his former, and now current teammate. "And, you know, he was all over the place. He made a huge stop for us and he was a big key for us, too and winning two more points today.”

Philadelphia  struck first  near the midpoint of the opening frame, as Brandon Manning  fired  a shot  from the high  slot that was  knocked down, but Schenn recovered  the  loose  puck  on  the  left wing  and  buried  a  wrister  past Lundqvist to make it 1-0 at the 9:28 mark.

The  Flyers doubled their edge late in the frame when Gustafsson rifled a one-timer from the top of the right circle that sailed past Lundqvist on the short side for a 2-0 lead at 17:21.

"Yeah every game is a playoff game we know that. It's so tight battling for that playoff spot," noted Rangers captain Ryan Callahan. "Every point is really important right now. We have to put this behind us and we got another huge game Thursday. We can't dwell on it. We have to move forward."

Notes: New  York had  won three straight against Philadelphia...Manning's assist on Schenn's  goal was  his first NHL point...He was recalled, along with defenseman Matt Konan (who did not play) from Adirondack of the AHL after the absences of Kent Huskins due to a concussion suffered in Monday's win at Montreal, plus the revelation that Bruno Gervais will be lost for the rest of the season following surgery to correct a stomach muscle problem...Philadelphia improved to 13-6-2 at home, while the Rangers dropped to 8-11-2 on the road...Philadelphia went 1- for-2  on the  power play ... New York  failed on all five of its chances with the  man advantage...Voracek's goal was his 19th of the season to set a new career high...Claude Giroux was 18-for-27 on faceoffs (67 percent) , leading the Flyers to a 57-percent night as a team (40 for 70).