Sean Avery seems to be enjoying his return to New York, as the pesky forward chipped in two goals and drew a pair of penalties in the Rangers' 4-2 win over Philadelphia on Sunday afternoon. He has now scored in three straight games, and has picked up five points since being claimed on re-entry waivers back on March 3. Nik Antropov and Fredrik Sjostrom also scored for New York, while Henrik Lundqvist stopped 24 shots as the Rangers made up for their 4-2 loss in Philadelphia on Saturday.
For the most part, it was a relatively one-sided game, as the Rangers peppered Philadelphia goalie Antero Niittymaki with 39 shots, while also converting on three of their nine opportunities with the man advantage.
The highlight of the day for the Flyers was probably this crushing hit by Mike Richards on Nikolai Zherdev in the first period.
Great hit, and completely clean. As you can see at the end of the video, NBC showed a replay of Richards hitting New York's Brandon Dubinsky during Saturday's game with a shoulder-to-shoulder hit, which resulted in Dubinsky dropping to the ice and grabbing his face as if he were just kicked in the head by a horse. Richards was given a two-minute minor for "elbowing."
Following his clean hit on Sunday, Richards was jumped by New York defenseman Daniel Girardi, leading to a rather weak fight. Both players received five minute majors for fighting, while Girardi picked up the extra two for instigating and a 10-minute misconduct -- as he should have. There was no need for Giradi to brawl with Richards for dishing out a completely legal hit.
Braydon Coburn put the Flyers in somewhat of a hole late in the second period when he took a five-minute major (and a game misconduct) for hitting Nik Antropov away from the play. Avery netted his second of the game on the ensuing power play, helping seal the win for New York.
