NEW YORK - This victory was three years in the making for backup goalie Ray Emery and the rest of the Philadelphia Flyers.
Emery stood in again for injured No. 1 netminder Steve Mason and made 31 saves to help the Flyers rally from an early two-goal deficit and beat the New York Rangers 4-2 on Sunday to even their NHL first-round playoff series.
The Flyers had lost nine consecutive at Madison Square Garden, including 4-1 in the series opener on Thursday, since their last victory there on Feb. 20, 2011. Emery hadn’t won a postseason game anywhere in exactly three years for Anaheim at Nashville.
“I try to stay even-keeled, whether it’s going well or you don’t get off to the start you want,” the 31-year-old Emery said. “I play with a system in there, and I just kind of rely on that. I’ve had leads before and I’ve been down before so it’s just kind of a consistent approach.”
Luke Schenn scored the go-ahead goal in the second period after Jakub Voracek and Jason Akeson got the Flyers even at 2-2. Wayne Simmonds sealed the victory with a power-play, empty-net goal.
Now the Flyers head home, where they went 2-0 against the Rangers in the regular season. Game 3 is on Tuesday.
Philadelphia no longer has to hear about its skid in New York in which the Flyers were outscored 35-10 and never had more than two goals in any game.
“That’s a huge weight off our shoulders, to come in here and get the split,” Schenn said. “Going back home, we feel a bit better about ourselves.”
Voracek brought the Flyers within 2-1 in the first after Martin St. Louis and Benoit Pouliot staked New York to its lead. Emery did the rest, looking especially sharp in the second and third periods.
Henrik Lundqvist stopped 21 shots after a 14-save winning effort in the opener.
“They came back pretty strong late in the first, and then in the second period a lot better,” Lundqvist said. “Going into the third we felt confident we could tie it.
The tide turned in the second when the Flyers caught up and went ahead despite being outshot 17-9.
Rangers Coach Alain Vigneault called that period his team’s best of the day.
“The game can be funny sometimes,” he said. “We had some Grade A chances. Our power play had some great looks. They scored two and we didn’t.”
Akeson tied it with a power-play goal 5:45 in off a rebound of Brayden Schenn’s shot for his second career NHL tally.
It was a day of redemption for Akeson, playing his fourth NHL game. His double high-sticking penalty in Game 1 led to two Rangers goals that turned a 1-1 game into a 3-1 deficit in the third.
Flyers Coach Craig Berube didn’t consider benching him for Game 2.
“Should I sit out everybody that takes a penalty?” Berube asked. “I understand he took a four-minute penalty, but he played well. It was a mistake, and you have to learn from them. He’s a good player.” BRUINS 4, RED WINGS 1
BOSTON - Justin Florek and Reilly Smith scored in a three-minute span in the first period and the Boston Bruins evened their playoff series with a victory over the Detroit Red Wings in their Game 2 on Sunday.
Showing more spark after not taking enough challenging shots on goal in their 1-0 loss Friday night, the Bruins had 18 shots in the first period after managing just 25 in the entire opener.
Luke Glendening cut Boston’s lead to 2-1 at 13:20 of the second period before Milan Lucic scored late in the second and Zdeno Chara added a power-play goal early in the third.
Game 3 of the best-of-seven series between the top-seeded Bruins, who won the Presidents’ Cup with an NHL high 117 points, and eighth-seeded Red Wings is set for Detroit on Tuesday night. CANADIENS 3, LIGHTNING 2
MONTREAL - Tomas Plekanec scored at 5:43 of the third period, and Carey Price made 27 saves to give Montreal a victory over Tampa Bay and a 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series.
Rene Bourque scored 11 seconds into the game, and Brendan Gallagher broke a 1-1 tie 18:10 into the second period. P.K. Subban had two assists for the Canadiens.
Ondrej Palat scored a power-play goal for the Lightning to tie the game at 1-1 at 8:39 of the second period, and Matthew Carle scored 11:36 into the third to give the Lightning hope for a comeback. Steven Stamkos assisted on both goals.
SHARKS 7, KINGS 2
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Fourth-liners Mike Brown and Raffi Torres scored second-period goals to spark a San Jose comeback and lead the Sharks over Los Angeles and a 2-0 lead in their first-round series.
Justin Braun, Patrick Marleau, Joe Pavelski, Logan Couture and Joe Thornton also scored for the Sharks, who overcame a two-goal deficit after the first period of a playoff game for just the third time in 26 tries in franchise history. Antti Niemi made 24 saves.
Jake Muzzin and Trevor Lewis scored first-period goals before Jonathan Quick allowed seven goals in the final two periods.
NHL playoffs glance
FIRST ROUND (Best-of-7)
FRIDAY’S GAMES Montreal 4, Tampa Bay 1 Detroit 1, Boston 0 Anaheim 3, Dallas 2 SATURDAY’S GAMES St. Louis 4, Chicago 3, OT Columbus 4, Pittsburgh 3, 2OT Colorado 4, Minnesota wild 2
SUNDAY’S GAMES
Philadelphia 4, NY Rangers 2
Series tied 1-1 Boston 4, Detroit 1
Series tied 1-1 Montreal 3, Tampa Bay 2
Montreal leads series 3-0 Los Angeles at San Jose, (n)
San Jose leads series 1-0
TODAY’S GAMES - All times Central
Pittsburgh at Columbus, 6 p.m.
Series tied 1-1 Colorado at Minnesota, 6 p.m.
Series tied 1-1 St. Louis at Chicago, 7:30 p.m.
St. Louis leads series 2-0
Anaheim at Dallas, 8:30 p.m.
Anaheim leads series 2-0
Sports, Pages 18 on 04/21/2014