Spectacular goaltending and firewagon hockey with a physical edge ruled the night as the Philadelphia Flyers and New York Rangers combined for 87 shots and 147 attempted shots through 65 minutes before the Flyers prevailed, 3-2, via shootout on Hockey Fights Cancer Night at the Wells Fargo Center.

Both Henrik Lundqvist (46 saves on 48 shots, five saves during overtime) and winning goaltender Steve Mason (37 saves on 39 shots, three OT saves) were at the pinnacle of their games during the exhausting contest. Neither goalie had a chance on any of the regulation goals.

"With a game like this there is going to be ups and downs throughout the game," said Flyers coach Dave Hakstol. "I thought we started well and our focus all the way through was pretty good. When they had a couple good pushes through the game they did a good job of staying calm and worrying about the next job at hand. I think because of that we were able to survive some situations and push back after that."

In the shootout, Lundqvist was beaten on the first two shots by Sam Gagner and Claude Giroux while Mason stopped first-round and third-round shots to nail down the win. Derek Stepan was the only Ranger to convert his shootout attempt.

"I felt really good during the game, but during the shootout I wasn’t very good at all," said Lundqvist. "It was a pretty exhausting game and I should’ve taken more time to reset. I felt like my timing was way off. It’s disappointing."

The victory was the Flyers' fourth in their last five meetings against the Rangers at the Wells Fargo Center. It has been at Madison Square Garden that the Flyers -- winless in their last 10 regular season games -- have struggled to win.

"We’ve always had good games against them and tonight was no different. It was a hard fight right until the end and I think the guys really deserved to win tonight. They were working hard and they’re not an easy team to beat," said Mason.

The Flyers held short-lived 1-0 and 2-1 leads during the game on a first period goal by Mark Streit (second of the season) and second period tally by Scott Laughton (first goal of the season). The Rangers responded with goals by J.T. Miller (first of the season) and Derick Brassard.

With the score tied 1-1 at 11:45 of the second period, the Rangers had a would-be goal by Jarret Stoll waived off for interfering with Mason. It was a call that could have gone either way, but after a challenge by Rangers' coach Alain Vigneault and a three minute, thirty-six second replay delay, referees Brian Pochmara and Kelly Sutherland upheld Pochmara's original no-goal ruling.

There were scoring chances galore for both teams as the game progressed, especially when the Flyers put an 18-shot barrage on Lundqvist's net on the third period. He and Mason took turns making outstanding saves to keep the game knotted.

During the highly entertaining three-on-three overtime, the single best chance belonged to Gagner, who jumped onto the ice to replace Giroux after the Flyers' captain wiped out on a near-miss rush. Gagner got a clean breakaway for at least half the ice. He stickhandled around Lundqvist and had the perennial Vezina Trophy candidate beaten but couldn't quite hang onto the puck to finish it off.

The crowd of 19,805 at the Wells Fargo Center cheered at the final horn of the five-minute overtime. Then they promptly booed the announcement of the upcoming shootout; both because the OT was incredible to behold and (most likely) because the Flyers have struggled in shootouts for most of the last decade since the elimination of regular season ties.

Gagner went first in the shootout. This time he deked and pulled the puck to his backhand, flipping a shot over Lundqvist. After Mason did not bite on a move by Mats Zuccarello and denied his forehand attempt, it was Giroux turn in the top of second round.

Giroux did Gagner one deke better, putting two moves on Lundqvist and then lifting home a shot on the backhand. That gave the Flyers three opportunities to win the game via a round two save by Mason, a round three goal by Simmonds or a bottom of round three stop by Mason.

Stepan prolonged the skills competition by getting Mason moving and slipping a shot between his pads. With a chance to end the game, Simmonds was denied on the forehand by Lundqvist.

As a result, it was up to Mason to come up with one final save to get Philadelphia a second point on the night. He came through, stoning Dominic Moore's backhander with his left pad.

There was a frightening moment early in the second period that nearly cast a pall over the night, as Flyers left winger Michael Raffl fainted and collapsed on the bench. Six seconds into a Flyers penalty kill, at the 2:58 mark, play was halted after Flyers' players on the bench banged their sticks on the boards and hollered to get the officials' attention.

Moments earlier, during a delayed holding penalty on Jakub Voracek in the Flyers' defensive zone, Raffl appeared to get elbowed in the head by Stoll. He went off under his own power but then collapsed on the bench after play resumed. Raffl was helped up the tunnel by trainer Jim McCrossin and equipment manager Harry Bricker.

"Michael is a funny guy and sometimes he does something funny and I think that he is just joking around," Giroux said. "I told him to move and then I realized that he wasn’t joking around and then I started freaking out and started yelling at Jimmy. It wasn’t a fun moment. The whole team was pretty worried. He looks good right now. It was pretty scary.”

After the game, Flyers general manager Ron Hextall said the Austrian left winger was fine and did not have to be taken to the hospital. Several Flyers players said Raffl came into the dressing room during the second intermission to inform his teammates he was OK.

"Michael is fine. Michael stayed here. He’s fine. I just talked to him; he’s actually cracking jokes," Hextall said.

Beyond that, all Hextall would say was that Raffl sustained an upper-body injury. The GM deflected all concussion-related questions, insisting he hadn't seen the play and "it's not important" what he had been told after Raffl was examined. The GM also refused to speculate on whether Raffl would miss any games.

After Raffl left the game, Brayden Schenn spent most of the remainder of the night on the top line left wing spot and the first power play unit. The Flyers went 0-for-2 on the power play, despite several good scoring chances (Lundqvist made four saves). Philly went 2-for-3 on the penalty kill.

The game featured numerous momentum swings, as one side would dictate the play for several minutes and then the other would respond with a push of its own. The Flyers dominated the play early, building an 8-3 shot lead through the first 8:22 before the Rangers outshot the Flyers 8-4 over the final 11:38 of the opening period.

In the opening minute of play, Voracek squeezed through the defense along the right wall, cut in and found a pinching Streit for a near goal. Lundqvist denied Streit from a side angle. Later in the period, Mason stoned Zuccarello from 10 feet away and then made a turnstile-like stick save on a deflection in close by Oskar Lindberg.

The Flyers got on the board first at 11:15 of the first period. Streit's center point shot blast deflected off Viktor Stålberg and found the net. Assists to Simmonds and Gagner.

"I has just gotten on the ice," said Streit. "Our forwards did a hell of a job with a good forecheck. Gagner and Simmer were in there and were able to retrieve the puck. Simmer made a really nice pass to me and I just one-timed it. I tried to get it on net and I guess it got deflected off their forward but luckily enough it went in."

At 13:30, Miller was left all alone near right post, scoring on an in-tight airborne rebound to finish off a rapid three-shot sequence. Lindberg and Yandle the got the assists. Flyers defensemen Brandon Manning and Evgeny Medvedev were on the same side of the ice during the sequence, as Miller camped out.

When Wayne Simmonds exited the penalty box after a delay of game minor for closing his hand on the puck behind the Rangers' net, he joined Giroux on a 2-on-1 rush. Carrying the mail up the right side, Giroux looked pass all the way and Lundqvist was able to make a sliding pad save on Simmonds with 2:23 left in the first period.

It was then Mason's turn again to come up big, flashing the leather to cleanly glove a Lindberg shot from about 25 feet away.

The Flyers regained the lead at 2-1 just 2:07 into the second period. Laughton and Brayden Schenn combined to win a battle on the left boards and Schenn then passed to Laughton, who found a little bit of open room. Skating into the left circle, Laughton roofed a perfectly placed high glove side shot just underneath the long-side crossbar and goalpost.

After Voracek's penalty and the scare with Raffl on the bench, New York tied the score at 4:48 with a power play goal. Flyers penalty killer Ryan White accidentally deflected a Brassard shot into net, with Kreider screening Mason directly in front. The assists went to Hayes and Kreider.

The Rangers' would-be go-ahead goal by Stoll was immediately waved off by referee Pochmara for goaltender interference. The lengthy replay delay upheld the original call and cost the Rangers' their lone timeout of the game.

"I thought it was the right call to make on our part," said Vigneault. "Jarret had been slightly pushed in [by Voracek] and his stick was obviously behind Mason a little bit, but wasn’t interfering any of his possibility of making the save. But the referee saw it differently so you have to respect the call and move on."

For their parts, not surprisingly, both Mason and Hakstol felt the right call was made.

"There was a shot from my left side, I made a glove save, and making a pad save I believe his momentum just kind of carried me into the net as well," Mason said.

Hakstol added, "Looking at it live I thought it was no goal, there was contact with the goaltender. I honestly haven’t broken it down by video yet, the refs made a definitive call on the ice and with the coach’s challenge they took another look at it and obviously came out with the right call."

Both teams ended up finishing the game down by one forward. Apart from Raffl being forced to leave the game, Rangers' forward Stålberg was unable to finish the game after being felled by a heavy open-ice hit by Flyers' defenseman Radko Gudas (eight credited hits).

With 52.7 seconds left in the second period, Kreider went off for interference. Flyers had three good chances on their first power play of the night but were unable to re-take the lead.

Early in the third period, White was tripped out front and fell awkwardly on his shoulder. He went up the tunnel but returned to finish the game.

The Flyers took over the game as the third period progressed, but there were several times where Mason came up big. Most notably, the Rangers had numbers as Gudas was caught on a bad pinch and Mason swallowed up a shot cleanly with multiple Rangers waiting to pounce on a rebound in any direction.

In the late stages of regulation, Lundqvist made a great save on Pierre-Edouard Bellemare in close but then Miller flipped puck over glass for delay of the game. The Flyers had good puck movement but did not score. Shots in the third period were 18-9 in the Flyers' favor; 42-36 Flyers through regulation.

Overtime was played at a dizzying pace, highlighted by a tough save by Mason on Zuccarello in the opening minute, Giroux putting on a stickhandling display and wiping out on a fine scoring chance and Gagner nearly ending the game on a breakaway. In all, Lundqvist stopped five OT offerings, while Mason stopped three from the Rangers.

The Flyers will hold an optional practice on Sunday and a full practice at the Skate Zone in Voorhees, in preparation for the Buffalo Sabres coming to town on Tuesday. The Rangers, with Antti Raanta in net, will host the Calgary Flames on Sunday.

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