Flyers' Coburn scores winner after earlier mistake
PHILADELPHIA -- Braydon Coburn made up for a blunder with a big shot.
Coburn scored the tiebreaking goal 3:33 into the third period to lift the Philadelphia Flyers to a 2-1 victory over the New York Rangers on Thursday night.
Back on the ice following a season-high six-day break, the Flyers (2-7-0) snapped a four-game losing streak.
Matt Read also scored for Philadelphia, and goaltender Steve Mason made 30 saves.
Brad Richards had New York's goal. The Rangers (2-6-0) have one game remaining on their season-opening, nine-game road trip.
Shortly after Philadelphia failed to score during a five-minute man advantage, Coburn gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead when he blasted a shot from just inside the blue line through a screen by Wayne Simmonds and past goalie Cam Talbot.
"We want to try to put as many pucks as we can at the net," Coburn said. "We've got guys like Wayne screening the goalie and causing havoc in there, so you know as long as you can get the pucks through, things can happen."
Coburn gave the Rangers their lone goal by kicking the puck into his own net. Richards was credited with his team-high fifth goal to tie the score at 1 with 1:04 left in the first period. Richards fired a shot from a sharp angle along the left boards, and the puck deflected in off Coburn's shin.
"You know, it just happened so quick," Coburn said. "It is just reaction. I think it surprised me that he shot from there, and obviously it was just one of those bounces."
The Rangers had a third-period goal by J.T. Miller overturned following a video review that showed he kicked the puck in during a power-play chance.
"It would have been a big goal," Miller said. "Obviously, they saw something that I didn't, but it happens. It's a kicking motion; it happens all the time. I think it could have went either way. I didn't necessarily think I kicked it. I tried to shoot it, and it just caught me off guard. I didn't even know it really went in until everybody was (celebrating)."
Talbot made 25 saves in his NHL debut filling in for Henrik Lundqvist. The three-time All-Star and former Vezina Trophy winner is out with an undisclosed injury.
"He gave us a chance to win," Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said of Talbot. "He made the saves he had to make. That's what we want and what we need out of a goaltender's performance. Hopefully, next time we'll be able to give him more goals."
Read scored his first goal this season on a short-handed breakaway to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead in the first. Read picked up a loose puck after a turnover at Philadelphia's blue line, skated in and shot the puck between Talbot's legs.
A few minutes before Richards scored, New York's Derek Dorsett got the best of Zac Rinaldo in a heavyweight fight that seemed to energize the Rangers.
Tempers flared again in the second period with several players pushing and shoving. Simmonds landed a flurry of punches on Brandon Mashinter when they squared off.
Vincent Lecavalier was back in the lineup for the Flyers for the first time since suffering a lower-body injury Oct. 11. Lecavalier switched from center to right wing to play on Philadelphia's top line with captain Claude Giroux.
The Rangers killed off a five-minute penalty after Benoit Pouliot got a major penalty for boarding Max Talbot late in the second. Max Talbot, with blood dripping from his nose, quickly skated off the ice but returned in the third period with bandages on his face.
"None of us knew he was coming back," Giroux said. "He's a tough guy. Playing against him when he was in Pittsburgh, coming here, just the way he pays the price for his teammates, it kind of gets the guys going."
The victory was only the third for the Flyers in their past 14 games against the Rangers, dating to March 6, 2011.
"We cleaned up our own end and limited our mistakes," Mason said. "I was able to get it out of our zone pretty cleanly. Against a team like that, they are missing some of their key guys, but they still have a lot of the guys who can put it in the net, so when you're getting out of your zone, usually on the first attempt makes a difference."
NOTES: Besides Lundqvist, the Rangers were missing RW Ryan Callahan (thumb), LW Rick Nash (head) and LW Carl Hagelin (shoulder). ... Lecavalier missed three games. Flyers LW Scott Hartnell, who sustained an upper-body injury the same night Lecavalier got hurt, remains sidelined. ... Read had 12 goals in 13 games against Talbot in college. Read went to Bemidji State. Talbot played at the Alabama-Huntsville. .. Philadelphia's two points through eight games represented a franchise worst at that point of a season. ... The Rangers complete their nine-game, 23-day road trip when they play the Red Wings in Detroit on Saturday. They will play their first home game Monday against the Montreal Canadiens. The unusual road trip was necessitated by extensive renovations at Madison Square Garden. ... The Flyers go on the road to face the New York Islanders on Saturday.
