Alex Lyon Unfazed by the Moment in Massive Relief Effort

BOX SCORE 

NEW YORK - Entering a game cold to start the second period following a wild six-goal first period while staring down at future Hall of Famer Henrik Lundqvist at the other end of the rink may have intimidated most rookies, but Alex Lyon simply wasn't phased. Not this time. 

Perhaps Lyon didn't have a moment to absorb the magnitude of the moment, and even better, playing on the grand stage of Madison Square Garden didn't overwhelm him at all. After all, for Lyon, the best way to earn that first NHL victory was in a building where he had never lost. Lyon is now a perfect 4-0 in games at the Garden, dating back to his days with Yale and their battles with Ivy League rival Harvard.

"I actually did take a comfort in that," Lyon said. "I've been here, I've won here. You know the surroundings here a bit, so it's good. When you're in college and you look at the building and say, ‘Oh my God, it's huge', but now that I've seen a lot of NHL and AHL rinks it calms things down a little bit." 

Sunday, Lyon came off the bench in relief of Michal Neuvirth to stop 25 of 26 Rangers shots in leading the Flyers to a 7-4 win over their Metropolitan Division rivals (see observations)

"It really does make a difference when you get that first win, especially after my first start against New Jersey where I felt like I could have uplifted the team there and we lost late. I'm just happy I could contribute," Lyon said. 

Philadelphia Flyers

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The Flyers announced after the first period that Neuvirth would not return to the game after suffering a lower-body injury. Neuvirth was slow getting to his skates on a Rangers 2-on-1 goal where he was forced to fully extend himself moving post-to-post. 

"You never want to see injuries happen and you never want to see them in key areas, but it is part of the game," said head coach Dave Hakstol. "With Neuvy and (Brian Elliott) being down, it's a challenge. Alex stepped in today and did the job. And that's what our guys will rally behind going forward."

On the 50th anniversary of the very first game at the current Madison Square Garden, which coincidentally was played between the Flyers and Rangers, the two bitter rivals had no problem turning back the clock to a time when fighting went hand-in-hand with scoring goals. Shayne Gostisbehere dropped the gloves for the first time in his NHL career with Rangers forward Pavel Buchnevich, who laid out Travis Konecny with a hard hit on the opening shift of the game.

"I'd never done that before, but the boys were happy I did it," Gostisbehere said. "I just heard the loud noise and I saw him on the ground. I thought he got smoked and I passed it to him so, I don't know, I dropped the gloves."

"It was cool. It was a fun game. It's not how we drew it up. 3-3 after the first. As a team, our coach said we didn't really have it tonight, but we found ways. I think the boys stood up for one another and we went out there and got the job done."

Most impressively after a dismal defensive effort in the opening 25 minutes and facing the adversity of losing another goaltender, the Flyers still found a way to earn a victory during a time of the season when earning points are vitally important. The Flyers have now collected at least a point in their last eight games with a 6-0-2 record dating back to Feb. 3.

"Sometimes you have those nights," Hakstol said. "Guys were ready to go. There were three scraps in the early parts of the game. It was one of those nights playing against a good offensive team. We weren't sharp enough and we weren't quite hard enough with or without the puck, but we recovered enough to get the two points."

Fortunately, the Flyers were still able to dismantle a fragile Rangers team that has plummeted to last place in the Metropolitan Division by racking up seven goals against Lundqvist for the first time in 56 career games against the Orange and Black.

"Obviously, there were a lot of mistakes," Lundqvist said. "They're getting deflections in our net, odd-man rushes. I just have to start with myself, somehow find energy and confidence to play your game, but it's hard when you give up so many goals to stay confident." 

"You got to get to the net. There were some flash screens and just a good job of getting pucks to the net and winning net-front battles and it kinda went both ways," said MacDonald.

Notable stats
• The Flyers are digging the day games, now 7-1-3 in afternoon starts.

• The top line dominated once again with seven points and a plus-five rating. Konecny registered his first career three-point game and Claude Giroux scored his 200th career goal.

• The Flyers scored seven goals on the Rangers for the first time since November 11, 1992, at the Spectrum.

• The Flyers have not allowed a power play in back-to-back games, which has not happened since the NHL began tracking those number through box scores dating back to 1977.

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