Rangers on brink of elimination after disastrous loss to Flyers

The lights are almost off on this already dark Rangers season. An 8-5 loss to the Flyers on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden pushed the Rangers to the brink of elimination, which could become official as soon as Thursday night on Long Island if they lose the second game of this back-to-back slate against the Islanders. It was the visitors who got the better of a back-and-forth third period, in which eight total goals were scored between the two teams. Philadelphia, already eliminated from playoff contention to match its longest postseason drought of five seasons, managed to find the back of the net five times in comparison to three for the Rangers. After Sean Couturier regained the lead for the Flyers in the second half of the period on a long rebound from Rangers goalie Jonathan Quick, Tyson Foerster’s second of his three goals in the game ultimately stood as the game-winner.Chris Kreider may have cut it back to a one-goal deficit with 1:50 left in regulation, but empty-netters from Foerster and Owen Tippett cleared out the fans who were remaining in the lower bowl of MSG.Mika Zibanejad earned a penalty shot just 1:15 into the game, but the Swedish center went way wide. It counted as the Rangers’ 11th straight miss of a penalty shot, with the last successful one coming from Dan Boyle on Dec.9, 2015.

But the home team still managed to strike first.Skating shorthanded due to a too-many-men-on-the-ice call, Zibanejad pushed the puck up to Vincent Trocheck, who faked the shot before roofing a backhander past Flyers goalie Aleksei Kolosov for the 1-0 lead.  Foerster answered for the Flyers just over nine minutes into the second period, when the Philadelphia forward beat Quick short-side from the top left circle. The Flyers then took their first lead of the night while shorthanded on a goal from Garnet Hathaway.It counted as the fourth shorthanded goal the Rangers have given up in their past six games. Artemi Panarin, however, answered right back f...