Both New York City-based hockey teams came out of the gate swinging to open the second half of the 2022-’23 season. The Rangers outlasted the Calgary Flames 5-4 in overtime, while the Islanders edged out the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1.
Rangers 5 – Flames 4: The Rangers found themselves in the midst of a back-and-forth affair with Calfary, in a game that wound up tied at four different moments. Filip Chytil scored twice in the early going, but Calgary answered each of his goals with scores by Blake Coleman and Tyler Toffoli. After Mika Zibanejad put the Rangers back in front 3-2 late in the second period on a power play, the Flames responded with a pair of goals of their own in the third period to take a 4-3 advantage.
That set the stage for Zibanejad to net the game tying goal with less than five minutes remaining in regulation.
MIKA FEBRUARY WITH THE BREAD ON THE SIDE pic.twitter.com/r45IhTEh99
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) February 7, 2023
Finally in OT, Zibanejad tried to hit the game winner, but the shot was blocked Jacob Markstrom. The ricochet went right to Alexis Lafreniere, who shot the puck past Markstrom to the back of the net for the game winner.
HE IS THE
— New York Rangers (@NYRangers) February 7, 2023
AL
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LAF pic.twitter.com/0eh4EDnxtd
ISLANDERS 2 – FLYERS 1
Meanwhile, the Islanders kept their slight playoff hopes alive with a 2-1 win over Philadelphia to start the second half of the season. Kyle Palmieri and Matthew Brazal both scored for New York, while goalie Semyon Varlamov did the rest shutting down the Flyers offensive charge. With the win the Isles improve to 26-22-5 on the season.