Callahan's hat trick helps Rangers beat Philly again

Hockey Betting Lines

02/11/2012 - Philadelphia, PA (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ryan Callahan's second career hat trick helped the Rangers continue their winning ways against the Flyers this season, as New York exited Philadelphia on Saturday with a 5-2 victory.

Marian Gaborik added a goal and three assists for the Rangers, who have won all five of their meetings with the Flyers this season and increased their winning streak in the series to seven games.

Artem Anisimov also lit the lamp for New York, which now leads Philadelphia in the Atlantic Division standings by six points. Henrik Lundqvist made 31 saves in the victory.

Wayne Simmonds had a goal and an assist for the Flyers, who have lost four of five. Claude Giroux also scored.

Sergei Bobrovsky turned aside 21-of-26 shots in defeat.

The story of the game was the power play. New York was 3-for-7 with the man advantage, while Philly went 0-for-4.

The Rangers started the game with a power-play goal from Callahan at the 8:25 mark of the first period. After taking a pass from Gaborik, Callahan managed to score from a tough angle along the goal line.

Simmonds made it a tie game at the 13:03 mark. Andrej Meszaros' blast from the right point deflected off Simmonds' leg and past Lundqvist.

New York, though, scored again on the man advantage with 3:20 left to make it 2-1. Brad Richards controlled the puck at the top of the right circle and passed in front to Gaborik, who quickly redirected the puck past Bobrovsky.

The back-and-forth battle continued 6:36 into the middle stanza. A nice pass from Simmonds put Giroux on a breakaway. Lundqvist put his arm down along the line to stop Giroux's initial shot, but the Flyers forward was able to jam the puck into the net.

But the Rangers swung the momentum back in their favor with another power-play goal. The visitors got set up in the offensive zone, which resulted in Michael Del Zotto controlling the puck in front of the net. His pass across the crease led to Callahan's second goal of the contest.

New York put the game away with a pair of goals in the third stanza. Just 6:28 into the frame, Gaborik slid a pass from below the goal line to the right circle for Derek Stepan, who slid the disc to the slot. From there, Anisimov put the puck into the back of the net for a 4-2 margin.

Callahan completed his hat trick at the 11:25 mark. With Bobrovsky sprawled out on the ice, Callahan lifted the puck over the goaltender and into the net.

Game Notes

Both of Callahan's hat tricks have come against the Flyers...New York was without forward Ruslan Fedotenko after he took a shoulder to the head from Tampa Bay's Dominic Moore on Thursday...The Rangers have outscored the Flyers 29-10 over the past seven encounters, shutting them out twice...The Rangers scored three power-play goals in a game for the first time since March 15, 2011.

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Big Ten Conference odds

Teams that should be in: Michigan State, Indiana
Work left to do: Illinois, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa

Behind the big two, the pecking order might be in a bit of flux. Has Michigan State passed Indiana after handling the Hoosiers in East Lansing? Where is Illinois in that mix? What looked like a four-big league last week could be morphing into five -- and even six is not unthinkable at this point if everything breaks right.

Should be in:

Michigan State [21-8 (8-6), RPI: 20, SOS: 15] The Spartans made it four-for-four on the homestand, a gigantic accomplishment that leaves them in extremely good shape. MSU is only 1-6 on the road and is at Michigan and at Wisconsin to close things out, meaning the date with the Wolverines on Tuesday looms very, very large. Beating Texas early will hold up well, as will the rout of Bradley and the win over BYU, but will 8-8 be enough? It very well could be, as the computer numbers are good, but why chance it?

Indiana [18-9 (8-6), RPI: 24, SOS: 32] Hmm ... good thing the last two are at Northwestern and home to Penn State, because IU might want to get both to feel completely safe after dropping its third in the last four, fading after halftime at Michigan State. Who knew the best nonconference win would be over Southern Illinois, which is a gift that keeps on giving for the Hoosiers. The win over Wisconsin also looks good on the mantel.

Work left to do:

Illinois [21-9 (9-6), RPI: 31, SOS: 25] A good performance at Penn State leaves the Illini in pretty good shape. Can they go to Iowa and take care of business to really look on their way? That's a huge game, as there is a possible cluster of teams that will end at 9-7. Illinois beat Bradley, but has lost to Xavier. A 9-7 mark and a semifinals trip in Chicago could be enough with the computer profile hanging in there, but it would be better not to mess around, clinching at least a tie for third.

Purdue [18-10 (7-7), RPI: 47, SOS: 28] Couldn't get it done at Iowa, but did win at Northwestern to put 9-7 squarely in sight. Where does that leave the Boilermakers, though? Even if they beat Minnesota and Northwestern at home, that won't help the computer numbers. Nonconference wins over Virginia, DePaul and Oklahoma are solid, but not spectacular. The Boilers very well might need an upset in the B10 quarters to have a legit claim.

Michigan [19-10 (7-7), RPI: 55, SOS: 53] Well, Michigan did what it needed to do, winning at Minnesota to take control of its fate. The Wolverines have Michigan State and an already-wrapped-up-the-league Ohio State at home to close, so the chances are there. Win both and we can talk. There is no marquee win yet in the profile, and the Wolverines were splattered in several games against name opponents. A mediocre computer profile fueled by a lack of road wins isn't helping, either.

Iowa [16-12 (8-6), RPI: 80, SOS: 64] For the sake of being complete, we'll add Iowa, this season's Stanford. It's plausible that the Hawkeyes could get to 10-6 (at Penn State, vs. Illinois left), but where does that leave them after a gruesome nonconference performance where the best win was over ... Toledo? Iowa State? Cornell?? If they get to 10-6, we can start to look at what they need to do in the B10 tourney, although my gut sense is that they would need to make the final and have knocked off Ohio State or Wisconsin on the way to have any real claim.

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