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Lundqvist, Rangers blank Flyers

Nov 27, 2011 - 4:34 AM New York, NY (Sports Network) - Henrik Lundqvist stopped 29 shots to post his second shutout of the season, as the New York Rangers topped Philadelphia, 2-0, at Madison Square Garden.

"I think we played with a lot of confidence and we made it really tough for them to create chances. They had a couple in the first and in the second, I feel like we really shut them down," Lundqvist admitted. "We did a really good job and I think we carried over the confidence from last night."

Brad Richards and Carl Hagelin scored for the Rangers, who have won nine of their last 11 games.

Sergei Bobrovsky allowed two goals on 32 shots for the Flyers, whose two-game win streak was halted.

"There's lots of teams that play good defense in this league," said Philadelphia head coach Peter Laviolette. "That hasn't stopped us before, but it just seemed today that the puck wasn't where it needed to be."

In a scoreless first period which lasted more than 40 minutes of real time, the only excitement came with a pair of bouts. Brandon Prust and Zac Rinaldo squared off after only four seconds, while Prust and Wayne Simmonds battled after the midway point.

Lundqvist's best save of the first period came when he stoned Scott Hartnell on a breakaway.

New York appeared to have scored on a power platy after just 30 seconds elapsed in the middle period, when Richards poked a loose puck through traffic in the crease. Upon review, it was shown that Richards batted the disc in with his hand.

But Richards tallied legitimately at the 54-second mark, when he fanned on his shot from the right circle but it had enough gas to hit the net high and inside the left post.

Lundqvist made eight stops in all to keep it a one-goal margin.

The Rangers picked up an insurance tally at 5:06 of the third period. Ryan McDonagh's shot from the left point was turned away, but Hagelin had two cracks at the rebound and the latter slipped between Bobrovsky's pads.

The 23-year-old Swede netted his first career score in his second NHL contest.

"To be able to do that here, at MSG is pretty amazing," Hagelin said of his milestone score. "There's such a great crowd here and they really love their team. They're probably the best fans in the world."

Despite 14 shots in the third period, the Flyers rarely tested Lundqvist, as the Rangers defense prevented many quality scoring chances.

Game Notes

New York has won four of its last six home games against Philadelphia, and the last two by shutout...That previous contest in Manhattan, a 7-0 Rangers victory on March 6, was the last time Philly was blanked on the road...Lundqvist also posted a 4-0 whitewash in Vancouver on October 18...He now has 37 career shutouts...Flyers forward Andreas Nodl suffered an upper-body injury early in the third period and did not return...Philly is off until next Friday when it travels to Anaheim, while New York hosts Pittsburgh on Tuesday.