Philly Sports Jabronis
By Tal Pinchevsky, PhiladelphiaFlyers.com
NEW YORK — Philadelphia Flyers goaltender Steve Mason will not play in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference First Round series against the New York Rangers on Sunday at Madison Square Garden (noon ET; NBC, TSN, RDS).
Mason participated in a full practice Saturday but hunched over repeatedly near the end of the skate and appeared to be experiencing some discomfort.
“For the most part, I felt pretty solid. I’m getting better every day but I won’t be playing tomorrow,” Mason said. “With the last 10 minutes in practice, what’s bothering me wasn’t feeling very good. We decided we need to give it more time before I get back in there.”
Mason sustained an upper-body injury April 12 in a collision with Jayson Megna of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Game 2 will mark the third straight he has missed. Ray Emery started the 4-1 loss in Game 1 and will again Sunday, with rookie Calvin Heeter the backup.
Game 3 is Tuesday in Philadelphia.
Philadelphia coach Craig Berube voiced his confidence in Emery, who made 32 saves Thursday.
“I thought he looked good, he looked sharp. He looked sharp again today in practice,” Berube said. “Those third-period goals were power-play goals where there’s not much he can do on them.”
The Rangers scored two power-play goals 47 seconds apart to break a 1-1 tie in the third after Flyers rookie forward Jason Akeson received a four-minute penalty for a high stick on Carl Hagelin. The Flyers led the NHL in penalty minutes and gave the Rangers five third-period power plays Thursday.
“It’s something we’ve battled all year. If we don’t smarten up it’s going to cost us like it did last game,” forward Matt Read said. “You can talk about it as much as you want, but if it doesn’t correlate to the ice it doesn’t matter what you say.”
Berube said discipline is one of the areas he sees the Flyers improving in Game 2, along with puck possession and shooting more frequently.
“If you don’t shoot the puck, you don’t have faceoffs in the offensive zone, that’s the first problem,” Berube said. “The Rangers did that to us. They shot the puck from everywhere so we had a lot of faceoffs in our end, too many.”
Berube said he is considering lineup changes but will not make a final decision until Sunday morning.
