Carter Hart stands tall against the Rangers

Carter Hart was the story for Philadelphia, Wednesday night.

The 20-year old netminder made 25 saves in two periods of work at Madison Square Garden as the Flyers faced off against the New York Rangers. 17 of those saves came in the third period, as the Flyers faced a relentless attack including a 6-on-3 man advantage late in the game.

Hart had numerous multi-save sequences to hold a slim lead, looking cool as ever on legitimate scoring threats.

One mistake he made came from Filip Chytil, who beat Hart short side — a goal he probably should get a piece of. Once he settled in, his positioning kept him in front of powerplay one-timers and the rebounds alike.

A particular sequence stood out: the Flyers failed to clear on the penalty kill (surprise!), on a great keep by Mika Zibanejad, who cut right down the slot and wristed one far side from the inside of the faceoff circle. It bounced off the tendy, skittered out in front, where Hart made a sprawling save with his right pad through traffic.

Hart should also get credit for some more great leg work here.

Other notable performances came from Mikhail Vorobyov and German Rubtsov, a dark horse candidate for a center job.

Rubtsov wasn’t on most people’s radar when asked about who could jump to the NHL. In fact, nobody considered it until Hextall mentioned his good play a couple of days ago.

His stats in junior haven’t jumped off the page, but that didn’t stop him from scoring tonight. Keep a lookout for his name, even as the season progresses if he’s cut soon.

Vorobyov continues to make Hextall’s decision near-impossible to send him down. Another goal tonight, albeit an easy rebound from a turnover that won’t happen in an NHL game, but a goal nonetheless. He was in the right spot when it mattered.

He does a great job keeping the puck in the zone and playing effective defense without the puck. With the puck, he drives zone entries well.

Vorobyov was placed on the top line with Claude Giroux and Dale Weise, two guys likely to make the team. While Giroux could make a golden retriever a 20 goal scorer, Vorobyov’s assister was Weise. His odds of a roster spot go up by the day.

Corban Knight and Scott Laughton had three points each, and Oskar Lindblom beat Lundqvist twice. The Swedish forward scored some seriously skilled goals, one a snipe and the first batted out of the air in typical Crosby fashion. He looks poised for a breakout year and a raised shooting percentage.

Elliott made his first appearance this year and made eleven saves, allowing two goals and was pulled after the first twenty minutes.

The Flyers committed ten minor penalties, and were 7-9 on the kill. This would be cause for concern if it wasn’t a massive improvement on last year’s penalty kill, with more than one of them being 5 on 3 situations.

Philadelphia is 3-1-0 this preseason after a stretch of four games in four days. They play again Friday night at home against the Islanders.