When the Rangers took the ice last night at Wachovia Center, they came to Philadelphia with a seven game winning streak on the Flyers home ice.  Their intentions were to keep that streak alive and crush any playoff hopes Philadelphia might have.   Regardless of the Rangers intentions, this was a must-win game.  When you’re sitting on the bubble of the playoffs, sandwiched between the Bruins and the Sabres by only a point, every game is a must-win.  But it’s always a little sweeter when you beat a division foe.

The Flyers started off strong and took an early lead on a Mike Richards goal.  They played near flawless hockey the first two periods, playing tight defense and getting shots on goal.  Unfortunately the puck couldn’t find it’s way past Rangers goalie Stephen Valiquette.

The score remained 1-0 through the remainder of the first period, and continued into the second. 

They entered the third period, where’s they’ve struggled recently, clinging to their one goal lead.  The Flyers have fallen asleep in the third period as of late, where they’ve allowed eight goals over the past five games.  They’ve lost four of those games (one blowing a three goal lead to the Maple Leafs). 

This night was going to be different right?  It had to be.

Midway through the third, Daniel Briere took a feed from Vaclav Prospal and put it past Valiquette, giving the Flyers a 2-0 lead with under ten minutes to play. 

Then what fans have seen from the Flyers over the past few weeks happened; a third period collapse.  Less then two minutes after Briere’s goal Marek Malik’s shot beat Marty Biron, cutting the Flyers lead in half.  Less then two minutes after that, Nigel Dawes knotted the game at two.

With less then four minutes to play, Briere scored his second goal of the game, giving the Flyers a 3-2 lead.  That held up for about two minutes, when Jaromir Jagr tied the game at three, only to head to overtime.

In overtime, the Flyers had their chances, including a 4-on-3 power play in which they failed to get a shot off (the Flyers looked terrible on the power play, going 0 for 6), but failed to capitalize.  It was going to a shootout.

In the shootout, the Flyers finally shined beating the Rangers 2-0.  Richards beat Valiquette on a beautiful fake shot, letting the puck trickled through his five-hole.  Jeff Carter followed up with a nice backhand that went top-shelf.

The Flyers didn’t play their best hockey, and again fell apart in the third period, but they did get the win, which is what counts right now.  I’m not too concerned about the seed, as long as the Flyers make the playoffs.  If they can stay healthy, they’ll go deep.

With the Flyers win and the Bruins idle, the Flyers moved into seventh place in the Eastern Conference.  They are four points behind the sixth place Rangers.  They still don’t have any breathing room.  With the Sabres losing and the Capitals winning, they leap-frogged into ninth place, only three points behind the Flyers. 

The Flyers next game is Sunday, as they host the Islanders.