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.
Tippett added an empty-netter, as well.
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 interim head coach Brad Shaw and have scored 25 goals. They have four games to go.
The Flyers went 2-1-0 against the Rangers (36-35-7) this season. New York has 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 putting up 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.
• 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.
He finished with 24 saves on 29 shots.
Panarin scored in close late in the second period to draw the Rangers 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.
Rangers netminder Jonathan Quick stopped 21 of the Flyers’ 27 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.
• 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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