The Flyers closed out their pair of back-to-back road games with a trip up to New York to face off against a struggling Rangers team. Coming off of a disappointing loss to the Capitals in last night’s return to action, the Flyers were eager to regroup and find a more positive result to close out the trip. And while it wasn’t the smoothest of complete showings for them, they were able to gut this one out and come away with a big win in overtime.
The basics
First period: 9:56- Sam Carrick (Raddysh, Borgen)
Second period: 1:23- Alexis Lafreniere (Cuylle, Trocheck), 10:25- Matvei Michkov (Cates, Tippett)PPG
Third period: :39- Trevor Zegras (Konecny, Sanheim)
Overtime: 2:10- Matvei Michkov (Couturier, Seeler)
SOG: 24 (PHI) – 25 (NYR)
Some takeaways
Another rough start
If there was a hope coming into this one that the Flyers, with a bit of rust knocked off and extra motivated to get things back on the right track after a tough loss to the Capitals last night, would come in for this one and make a concerted effort to hit the ground running, this was ultimately not something that they were able to deliver on.
The start to this one was, in a word, rough. The Flyers didn’t have a ton of pace out of the gate, and the Rangers were able to get them running around a bit while they were pouring on the chances early, and meanwhile the Flyers were struggling to get much of anything going for themselves, looking pretty completely disorganized and looking like they were struggling to string together more than two clean passes in a row. It was a tough look for a team that really needed to find a way to get going quickly in this one.
Now, there’s still a bit of credit to offered here, as the Flyers were able to pick up a bit of steam late in the frame, stringing together a bit of possession and creating a couple of good looks. It wasn’t enough to force a complete swing in momentum in their favor, but it was a step in the right direction, and it was nice to see them showing a bit of life.
Sam Ersson returns
The poor start to this one was unfortunate across the board, but particularly for the fact that it amounted to a waste of a very strong start to this game by Sam Ersson. For the first nine and a half minutes or so of the game, Ersson was on another level — the Rangers were buzzing, piling up the chances and really testing Ersson, and he was able to hold up very well to the barrage. It was a great start, and it made it even more deflating that the first shot that got by him was a relatively clean shot from distance.
It wasn’t a perfect showing for Ersson — and he would be beaten again early in the second on a more complete breakdown play — but there’s a lot to like in how he responded to those two tough goals, how he was able to lock things down and come up with some truly massive saves — one in particular in the waning seconds of regulation, and a couple more in overtime — to keep his team in this game. There’s room for him to continue to build up from this, to be sure, but this turned into a solid enough return to play after an especially long layoff.
The penalty kill steps up
This game had the chance to go sideways on the Flyers on a couple of occasions, and while Ersson’s efforts to regroup were vital to preventing that from happening, so too were those of the Flyers’ penalty killers.
Part of the good news here is that they didn’t see too much action in the first place — with just 3:33 of time on the man-advantage for the Rangers to work with in regulation, and then of course the more critical 1:51 in overtime — so the more disciplined game worked in their favor, but the penalty killers came up big when called upon all the same. It wasn’t their flashiest bit of work (though they did come up with one good shorthanded chance), but between some good work to get sticks in lanes and break up chances, and a couple more big blocks, they were able to keep the Rangers well contained, and themselves afloat.
It’s just another piece here where, if the Flyers really want to push for this miracle run down the stretch and into a playoff spot, they’re going to need more from the middling performances they’ve gotten from their penalty kill on aggregate so far this season, and this was certainly a step in the right direction.
Michkov gets on the board
The Flyers had a handful of standout performances in this one, but there was perhaps none with more flash than Matvei Michkov’s. After that tough start, he was able to stop the bleeding for the Flyers, scoring their first goal of the game on the power play, on a nice play to evade coverage and find a soft area for an excellent chance in front.
Mich was ready. 😤#PHIvsNYR | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/8rxYLCQHoj
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) February 27, 2026
With that good, though, there was a bit of bad, and this game had the chance to slip away from them at the very end with Michkov at the center of it all — inside the final minute of play, Michkov was called for interference on the goaltender (an admirable hard play to make, in a way, but still a penalty). It was nervous moments, but after another big kill, Michkov was perfectly positioned to grab a pass coming out of the penalty box, and be sprung for a rush, for the ultimate game winner.
MICHKOV MAGIC AT MSG! 🪄#PHIvsNYR | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/aIewixgZaS
— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) February 27, 2026
These goals were huge for the team, of course, the first for how it gave them a nice bit of spark and helped them to really get things rolling, and the second for how it fully secured them that win, but it’s hard to ignore the individual significance for Michkov himself. That is, it’s no secret this season — for a number of reasons — has been an uphill battle for him, but if he’s able to find his footing on the other side of this break and finish out the season strong, that’s going to go a long way for his confidence in himself, and the confidence the coaching staff has with him, in turn. There’s still a lot of season left to go for him to work with, but he’s getting off to a good start for this final stretch.
Picking up the pace
We gave the Flyers some credit for how they were able to get on the gas a bit late in the first period, and there’s even more credit due for how they were able to get their legs under them and establish more pressure in the second period and on out. This still wasn’t their tidiest of showings, but there was ample opportunity for more frustration to build up in their game and negatively impact them, force things to spiral on them, and instead of succumbing to that, they stuck with it, continued to create chances, and took their breaks as they came to them.
For a team coming off the break and also off of another tough game last night, they did well to keep their energy up — the building up of physical engagement as the game went on also all but certainly gave them a boost as well — and that was a real difference maker here. This was a hard fought win, and the best bit s of it should serve well as a blueprint for what this team will have to continue to do down the stretch.
