Rivals play ‘old-time’ first period

Say this for the Rangers: they’re not going down without fights.

The crowd of 18,006 had hardly settled in Sunday at the Garden before the Rangers and Flyers packed a game’s worth of action into a first period that included six goals and three fights.

“It started off old-time hockey, a lot of fights and a lot of goals,” Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said after his team lost 7-4.

By the time the horn sounded after 20 minutes, the teams ended right back where they started — tied up — and the Rangers failed to use it as a springboard for the rest of the game, sputtering out late on the second day of a back-to-back.

It only took 15 seconds for the first drop of the gloves. Pavel Buchnevich landed a big hit on Travis Konecny, to which Shayne Gostisbehere took exception and challenged the Rangers winger to a fight.

After Kevin Hayes and Rick Nash had scored to put the Rangers up 2-1, play stopped again 11:23 into the period as Tony DeAngelo sparred with veteran Wayne Simmonds.

In the 51 seconds that followed, the Flyers tied the score at 2-2 and then Cody McLeod fought Dale Weise — McLeod’s fourth fight in his ninth game as a Ranger.

“I liked our team’s energy at the start of the game,” defenseman Brady Skjei said. “Some guys stepping up physically that usually don’t and guys scoring goals. But at the end of the day, it’s two points lost.”

The Rangers took three fighting majors in one period (and in one game) for the first time since Stu Bickel, Brandon Prust and Mike Rupp all dropped the gloves three seconds into a game against the Devils on March 19, 2012.

After playing their fifth game in eight days, the Rangers are off until Thursday in Montreal — their longest break left this season. They are not scheduled to practice until Wednesday.

“No excuse, but we were running on fumes there a little bit with five games in [eight] days,” Vigneault said.

Brandon Halverson was sent back to AHL Hartford on Sunday a day after making his brief NHL debut on Saturday in Ottawa.