Flyers Batter Slumping BlueShirts

The slide continued Saturday afternoon. In the biggest game of the season with a chance to clinch the Atlantic Division, the Rangers were embarrassed by the Flyers 4-1 at Wachovia Center. It was their fourth consecutive loss with seemingly no end in sight to this freefall.

Suddenly just one point up on the Flyers with only one game remaining against Ottawa Tuesday, they no longer control the division. If the Flyers win at New Jersey later today and at the Islanders Tuesday night, they would win the Atlantic and earn home ice. There's even a chance that the Devils could comeback to steal the division. If the surging Devils can win their 10th straight today, they would own the tiebreaker over the Flyers but also would need help from the Senators. The way the Blueshirts have played lately, it wouldn't take much to beat them.

Outskated, outchecked and outworked from the first faceoff, the Rangers were lifeless. This two nights after Coach Tom Renney held a 20 minute closed door meeting after losing to the worst team in hockey, the Penguins. So much for coming out and making a statement.

"We did not attack the way we needed to," Renney told the AP. "It started to get away from us when we fell behind. We didn't put enough rubber at the net."

Instead, they were overmatched by the Flyers in as uncompetitive a first period as you'll see between two playoff teams. You wouldn't have known it by the time the period had concluded with the Flyers ahead 2-0. How dominant were they? They outshot the Rangers 15-3 and outchanced them 12-0.

Ex-Blueshirt Mike Knuble struck again on the power play to give the Flyers the lead. When Thomas Pock's clear was intercepted by Freddy Meyer IV, it became a two-on-one down low for Peter Forsberg and Knuble. Returning from a groin injury for the first time since a 3-2 shootout loss to the Rangers April 4, Forsberg showed no ill effects by sliding the puck through a sliding Fedor Tyutin's skates to a wide open Knuble, who deposited his 34th at 8:09. Fast becoming a thorn in their side, it was his seventh goal against the Rangers this season.

With the Rangers unable to mount any kind of attack, the much sharper Flyers continued to dominate play. Playing defensively responsible in front of Antero Niittymaki who subbed for Robert Esche (flu), they didn't allow Jaromir Jagr to get untracked. Checked tightly throughout by a combination of Michal Handzus and Denis Gauthier, Jagr was only able to register three shots and couldn't create many chances.

While they kept Jagr off the board, the Flyers pounced on another Ranger mistake to move ahead by two. This time, the culprit was Sandis Ozolinsh. With him caught pinching at the blueline, Flyers rookie Jeff Carter quickly turned it into a two-on-one. When he slipped a pass across to Niko Dimitrakos for another slam dunk, it was 2-0 heading to the second.

It would only get worse when R.J. Umberger converted yet another two-on-one, tapping in another Carter feed to extend it to 3-0 at 5:44. The rout was on 3:54 later when former Ranger Petr Nedved took a Handzus pass off another odd-man rush and wristed one through Kevin Weekes to make it 4-0. Amazingly, Renney never even bothered to use his timeout. This also might explain why he opted to move Michael Nylander down to the second line while moving up Petr Sykora to the top line. A top line which destroyed the Flyers the first seven games.

Trailing by four, the Blueshirts finally got on the board when Marcel Hossa stuffed in a PP goal at 11:38 for his second in two games.

They nearly cut it to two but Sykora was stoned by Niittymaki on a breakaway. Niittymaki would shine stopping 22 of 23 Ranger shots the final two periods to earn the win.

"It was a must win for us," said Tom Poti. "We really wanted it bad. "We really didn't play like it."

Notes: Making his seventh straight start for Henrik Lundqvist (hip flexor), Weekes finished with 25 saves. It was the first time in five starts he lost to the Flyers in regulation this season. ... Lundqvist is expected to get the final start of the season at home for Rangers (44-25-12, 100 pts) Tuesday against the Senators (51-21-9, 111 pts). ... Defenseman Marek Malik returned to the lineup after missing two games due to an upper body injury. ... Darius Kasparaitis (groin) and Steve Rucchin (ankle) remained out.