Forsberg, Flyers Beat Rangers, Get First Win

Peter Forsberg had a goal and two assists and the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Rangers 4–2 last night for their first victory of the season.

New York, which won a 13-round shootout in Philadelphia on Saturday, lost for the first time (2–1).

Antero Niittymaki bounced back from the weekend loss and made 25 saves for the Flyers (1–1–1). Marcel Hossa won Saturday's shootout with the only goal in the lengthy tiebreaker.

In the rematch, Simon Gagne tipped Forsberg's right-circle feed under Henrik Lundqvist's pads on a 5-on-3 power play for his third goal of the season at 12:25 of the second period that made it 4–1.

New Rangers forward Brendan Shanahan scored his third of the season — all in New York's two home games — with 29 seconds left in the middle period. He fired in a hard slap shot off a nice feed from Michael Nylander during a power play to close the gap to 4–2.

It was the first power-play goal of the season for the Rangers.

Philadelphia scored twice within 59 seconds of the second period to take a 3-1 lead. Mike Knuble scored his first at 6:59, skating out unchecked from the right corner and deking Lundqvist on a backhander from close range. Geoff Sanderson followed at 7:58, scoring on a 2-on-1 break for his second of the season.

The Flyers came out aggressively at the start, swarming on the forecheck and forcing Lundqvist to make several difficult saves. Forsberg skated out of the right corner along the goal line and scored his second goal on a high, sharp-angle wrist shot from close in at 3:15 to give Philadelphia a 1–0 lead. Rangers defenseman Thomas Pock scored his first at 16:33 to make it 1–1. Petr Prucha started the play by blocking a point shot in the New York zone and sending a nifty backhand pass off the sideboard as he fell to the ice to create a 2-on-1 break.