From: seth@cbnewsh.cb.att.com (peter.r.clark..jr)
Subject: FLYERS notes 1/10 (late)
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: na
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 21:19:01 GMT



The FLYERS beat the Rangers 4-3 in a Saturday afternoon matinee at the
Spectrum for their 1000th win in franchise history. The win evened the
season series with the Rangers at 2-2-0 and helped keep pace with the Devils
who had won the night before. With the win the FLYERS had only lost one of
their previos six, and moved back to within 7 points of the NJ Devils and
four games of .500.

Injuries:

no changes

Lines:

Fedyk-Lindros-Recchi
Lomakin-Brind'Amour-Paslawski
Evans-Acton-Dineen
Eklund-Snuggerud-Brown (not a line)

Galley-Yushkevich
Carkner-Nattress
Benning-McGill

Soderstrom got his 11th straight start. I forgot to mention that Roussel
dressed for the Washington game and Beauregard was scratched. Same here.

Game Summmary:

The FLYERS connected on the first power play of the game. They were getting
some good pressure when James Patrick picked up a loose puck off an Eric
Lindros point shot in the right corner and tried to clear. The puck hit
something in the boards and caromed out into the slot. Greg Paslawski and
Brent Fedyk may have touched the puck as everybody hacked at it because they
got assists (I couldn't see any contact, IMHO the scorer made a mistake) but
it ended up on the stick of Mark Recchi moving right to left in the slot. He
shot back to the right to beat goalie Mike Richter, 1-0 FLYERS at 8:46.

Later in the first, Dave Snuggerud carried into the offensive zone on the left,
but got checked off the puck. Keith Acton picked up the loose puck in traffic
near the left boards just inside the blue line and sent it to Ric Nattress
who was just coming into the zone dead center. He wrists one past Richter that
he definitely should have stopped. 2-0 FLYERS at 13:55 of the first.

And they struck again exactly one minute later. Terry Carkner carried the
puck out of FLYERS zone and passed ahead to Lindros as he (Carkner) got to
the center line. Lindros recieved at the Ranger blue line, caught the
bouncing puck with his skate, got it onto his stick, and slipped it through
two Ranger defenders to Eklund who was crashing in from the right. He went
in all alone on Richter, caught the bouncing puck with his stick and flipped
it past him for a commanding 3-0 FLYERS lead at 14:55.

The Rangers get their first crack on the power play moments later. Coming into
the game the Rangers were 8th on the PP, FLYERS up to 21st killing with 2 for
7 vs Caps. Rangers were in the FLYERS zone for the first 1:40, but were held
shotless on whole thing. I did not get rankings for the FLYERS PP or the
Rangers PK units. The special teams are looking much better than their
rankings for the FLYERS these days...

John Vanbiesbrouck replaced Richter to start the 2nd period.

And that may have light a small spark under the Rangers. Just over a minute
into the 2nd Kevin Lowe passed up to Mark Messier who broke in 2 on 1 with
Mike Gartner. Messier made the pass, and Soderstrom had plenty of time to
come across before Gartner shot, but he beat Soderstrom anyway through a
small crack between the right post and Soderstroms pad for his 25th goal of
the season. 3-1 FLYERS at 1:29.

Then with Ryan McGill in the box for holding the stick, Darren Turcotte
passed to Ed Olcyk at the left point and he slapped the puck in on Soderstrom.
Adam Graves, who was allowed to stand in front of Soderstrom unharrassed,
deflected it past Soderstrom. It was the FLYERS biggest defensive breakdown
of the game and the Rangers are quickly back in it, down 3-2 at 5:10, just 6
seconds before the McGill penalty expired.

But then the FLYERS strike back quickly. A broken play in the offensive zone, 
Brind'Amour picked up a loose puck sent to nobody in the right corner by Greg
Paslawski and tried to pass back to Recchi in the right circle. The pass
missed Recchi, though, and went all the way back to Nattress who again was
just coming into zone and he blasted it through Beezer's 5 hole. The puck hit
both pads before it went through and into the net. FLYERS up 4-2 at 6:48 of
the second. It was Nattress' first two goal game of his career. In his 11
year career he's had two seasons without scoring, three scoring only one
goal, and only 22 total goals coming into this season. Now he's got 3 goals
in two games!

The rest of the period went scoreless, as did the first 15:13 of the third.
At that time, Mike Gartner took a hooking penalty, and the FLYERS had a
chance to put the game away. But they failed to convert, and when the penalty
ended Mike Gartner came out of the box and was quickly fed the puck by
Sergei Nemchinov. He carried in from the right, skated around behind the
FLYERS net as he was denied an opening by Soderstrom, then back out into
the left circle where he uncorked a wrister. The puck went off of Gary Galley's
leg as he had skated into the crease to pick up a crashing Ranger, then off
Soderstrom and into the net at 17:31, and all of a sudden it's a one goal game.

And the Rangers were able to muster quite a bit of pressure in the last 2:31,
but Tommy Soderstrom was as good as ever, and the defense did a great job
of sweeping away rebounds, although they maybe should have swept more of them
all the way out of the zone.

All in all a solid effort for the FLYERS. So they open the "9 of 11 at home
stand" with two solid wins against Patrick division opponents to improve the
division record to 7-10-2, and improve the home record that had dropped a
bit to 11-6-2. The FLYERS must win the bulk of these games if they have any
plans to play hockey in the second 1/2 of April this year.

Next up, the Edmonton Oilers for the second time in 8 days, the last game a
come from behind 2-2 tie in Edmonton.

pete clark jr - rsh FLYERS contact
Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey