NEW YORK — The Flyers topped the Rangers, 8-5, in a back-and-forth game Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.
Tyson Foerster, Garnet Hathaway, Travis Sanheim, Jakob Pelletier, Sean Couturier and Owen Tippett all scored goals for the Flyers.
Foerster had a hat trick. His second turned out to be the game-winner. His third was an empty-netter.
“He’s a real diligent young man, a real pro, mature beyond his years,” interim head coach Brad Shaw said. “It shows in his game and I couldn’t be happier for him to get that hat trick tonight.”
Tippett’s goal was an empty-netter, as well. Twelve differed Flyers recorded at least a point. Nick Seeler had three assists.
“This building’s pretty sweet to play in,” Foerster said. “Anytime you can score a bunch of goals, it’s obviously nice.”
Couturier scored a go-ahead 5-4 marker off a rebound from a Matvei Michkov shot. Pelletier netted the game-tying 4-4 goal after New York surged ahead with back-to-back goals in the third period.
Hathaway put the Flyers ahead, 2-1, with a shorthanded marker in the second period before Artemi Panarin answered under two minutes later. Sanheim gave the Flyers a 3-2 lead early in the third period, but the Rangers quickly erased it.
The Flyers (32-37-9) are 4-1-0 under Shaw and have scored 25 goals. They have four games to go.
“I don’t know if it’s just the situation, that we’re not in the [playoff race] anymore, but guys seem to be a little more loose, aren’t afraid to make plays,” Couturier said. “The only thing that’s important when you play like that, you’ve got to make sure that you’re accountable for yourself, your teammates. When you turn pucks over, you’ve got to backcheck, work hard to get it back. But it’s nice to see guys not being afraid to make plays and getting rewarded.”
The Flyers went 2-1-0 against New York this season. The Rangers (36-35-7) have had a significant drop-off after winning the Presidents’ Trophy last season.
• A promising development for the Flyers has been Foerster putting up back-to-back seasons of 20 or more goals.
He has 22 this season after scoring 20 as a rookie.
There’s still a ton of upside with the 23-year-old winger. You’ve got to think next season the Flyers would love to see him push for 25 to 30 goals.
Foerster’s line with Noah Cates and Bobby Brink has been very effective this season.
“I think he has always been marked as an offensive guy, a scorer,” Shaw said of Foerster. “I’ve been impressed with how he has added to the defensive side with the penalty kill, with how responsible that line plays 5-on-5. We put them out there regularly against the other team’s top unit and they do a fantastic job.
“He’s a big part of that, he’s a big part of our defensive conscience, but tonight’s a good example of what he can do on the offensive side, as well.”
Watch all three goals from Tyson Foerster’s first career hat trick.
• Aleksei Kolosov made just his second start since the calendar turned to 2025 and his first since Jan. 2.
The 23-year-old rookie surrendered three goals in the third period. Kolosov hung in there over the first two periods. The Flyers gave him six goals of support in the final stanza.
“That was a crazy period,” Shaw said. “We come out on the right side of that one. I thought we made enough good plays to take advantage of what was a pretty wide-open period.”
Kolosov finished with 24 saves on 29 shots.
Panarin scored in close late in the second period to draw New York even at 2-2. After killing off a penalty, the Flyers appeared to have a bad line change, which left them with four in coverage.
Shaw wanted the Flyers to make the first period “as least chaotic as possible” for Kolosov.
“I’m hoping our guys can play smart in the first five, 10 minutes,” Shaw said pregame. “Minimize the shots and the quality of them so that he can sort of work his way into the game.”
The Flyers did not help Kolosov ease back into things. He had to face a penalty shot just 1:15 minutes into the action and then faced a shorthanded breakaway from Vincent Trocheck. The Rangers’ center buried his opportunity to hand the Flyers a 1-0 deficit at first intermission. Kolosov faced 12 shots in the opening stanza.
“I thought Koly was great in the first period,” Shaw said. “I talked about limiting chances against him and we give him a penalty shot and two other point-blank breakaways, so it wasn’t ideal. But maybe it was good for him to get right into the game like that. I thought he held us in, kept it 1-0 after one period where we were kind of struggling and kind of stuck in the mud a little bit. He gave us a chance to regroup and end up with the win.”
Rangers netminder Jonathan Quick stopped 22 of the Flyers’ 28 shots.
• With the win, the Flyers moved ahead of the Bruins via the tiebreaker of fewer games played. They now have the fifth-best odds for the 2025 NHL draft lottery. They entered Wednesday at No. 4.
The Flyers are one point back of the Kraken and three back of the Sabres, Ducks and Penguins.
“Credit to the group, I don’t think this locker room is ever going to quit and give up,” Sanheim said. “We show up every night, we’ve got a job to do. Our main goal right now is just to try to finish the season strong and end on a positive note.”
• The Flyers have a back-to-back set this weekend as they host the Islanders on Saturday (12:30 p.m. ET/NBCSP) and visit the Senators on Sunday (1 p.m. ET/NBCSP+).
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