NHL ROUNDUP
Rangers 5, Flyers 1
Henrik Lundqvist and Brady Skjei sat inside the Rangers' dressing room after shellacking the Flyers, and surprisingly enough, their conversation was all about defense. Even after Rick Nash scored twice in New York's win over Philadelphia, the Rangers were most pleased by what happened in their own end. “We both said that was our best collective defensive game in a long time, and we end up scoring five goals,” Skjei said. Jordan Weal put Philadelphia up 1-0 before Nash, J.T. Miller, Paul Carey and Michael Grabner combined to make it 5-1 by the end of the second period. Nash had the first and last goal for the Rangers. “That's a testament to us playing good structurally,” Skjei said. “Good team defense first leads to good looks offensively. It was a good game all around.” New York snapped a three-game skid and improved to 23-17-5. Lundqvist made 25 saves for his 20th win of the season and 425th career victory. Lundqvist became the first goaltender in league history to win at least 20 games in each of his first 13 seasons. Philadelphia dropped to 20-16-8 with its first loss in four games. Brian Elliott gave up five goals on 21 shots before being replaced by Michal Neuvirth in the third period. Neuvirth stopped eight shots. “We weren't competitive enough,” Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds said. Entering their first meeting of the season, New York and Philadelphia were on significantly different trajectories. The Flyers had won four straight by an aggregate 21-11 margin, while the Rangers had scored two or fewer goals in eight of their last 10 games. Coupled with the Islanders' 4-1 loss to New Jersey, the Rangers passed Pittsburgh and the Islanders for the first wild card in the Eastern Conference. The Rangers have a game in hand on the Islanders. Pittsburgh, which was off, now holds the second wild card. Philadelphia took a 1-0 lead 2:06 into the game after Weal, positioned between Lundqvist, the right post and Kevin Shattenkirk, deftly redirected Radko Gudas' drive. Nash tied it 4:24 later with his 10th of the season and his first since Dec. 15. Pavel Buchnevich set up Nash for the breakaway goal with a stretch pass between Gudas and Brandon Manning, and New York's veteran right wing snapped a shot past Elliott. “It's what I'm supposed to do,” Nash said.
Devils 4, Islanders 1
Damon Severson scored twice 1:26 apart in New Jersey's threegoal second period, and the Devils ended a six-game skid with a victory over New York. Kyle Palmieri and Taylor Hall also scored for New Jersey, which was 0-3-3 since beating Detroit at home on Dec. 27. Keith Kinkaid, getting the start after Cory Schneider was a late scratch due to illness, stopped 25 shots. Anders Lee scored and Jaroslav Halak made 38 saves as the Islanders snapped a three-game winning streak that started with a 5-4 shootout victory over the Devils here on Jan. 7.