PHILADELPHIA — There hasn’t been much, or really anything at all, stopping the Rangers since the All-Star break. Not the Avalanche, who won the Stanley Cup two years ago.
Not the Lightning, who won the previous two Stanley Cups prior to that.
Not even the Devils, who ended their quest for a postseason run last year before it even reached the second round.
And that didn’t change Saturday, when the Rangers tied a franchise record with a 10th consecutive win by defeating the Flyers, 2-1, at Wells Fargo Center.
They’ll have a chance to set the record — previously held by the 1972-93 and 1939-40 teams — for a franchise that’s been around since 1926 when the Blueshirts face the Blue Jackets on Sunday, with Matt Rempe’s first NHL goal in the third period sealing their latest win.
Rempe’s night started with an old-school fight in the first period against Nicolas Deslauriers, where the pair dropped the gloves and exchanged punches for nearly 40 seconds.
It marked Rempe’s second fight in four games since getting called up.
And again, his presence emerged as a spark, both in the first period then again in the third when he deflected Braden Schneider’s shot into the Flyers net.
With each win, and the streak that materialized when those stacked on top of each other, the Rangers alleviated concerns about their midseason stretch of sub-.500 hockey that served as anything but a reassuring encore to their 24-8-1 tear to start the year.
At the crux of the Rangers’ streak has been Igor Shesterkin, who entered the All-Star break with numbers teetering on the brink of being career-worst marks.
That prompted the Rangers to give him a reset after the break.
Jonathan Quick, their best goaltender based purely on numbers and results, kept winning.
But the Blueshirts’ support for Shesterkin never wavered, and his save percentage has crept back over .900 (.907) with wins in his past five starts before head coach Peter Laviolette turned to him again Saturday.
He won his sixth consecutive start, making 39 saves — including 17 in the first period, when the Flyers peppered his net with attempts.
Eventually, with around eight minutes left in the second period, Alex Lafreniere gave the Rangers the lead.
The former No. 1 pick had a two-goal night against the Devils on Thursday, and he’d scored five times during the Blueshirts’ winning streak.
It was an encouraging sign for the winger who’d encountered 12- and eight-game goal droughts throughout the season.
This time, with the Rangers and Flyers skating 4-on-4, Lafreniere took a pass from Vincent Trocheck and snapped a shot past Philadelphia goaltender Samuel Ersson.
He’d nearly scored earlier in the power play, with Ersson’s left pad stopping the puck as Lafreniere tried to weave around him. He converted on his next chance.
It didn’t take long for the Flyers to even the game in the third period.
They kept directing chances toward Shesterkin, and on one, Scott Laughton carried the puck behind the net and managed to fling a pass while falling to the ice.
Then, Tyson Foerster flipped that past Shesterkin.
Even if the Rangers set the franchise record Sunday, they’ll still need six more wins to surpass the Oilers’ 16-game mark for the NHL’s longest winning streak this season.
But with the win, the Blueshirts moved past the Kraken and Panthers, and they now hold the second-longest winning streak across the league for the campaign.
And if the play from the winning streak becomes sustainable in the postseason sprint of seven-game series and anything-could-happen twists, if the Blueshirts can avoid the traps and early-season exits that have ended so many past seasons short of the sport’s pinnacle, they certainly look like a group that could do it again.
A 10-game winning steak makes just about anything possible. And it was Rempe who provided the latest reason for that.
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