Tyson Foerster recorded his first career hat trick and Sean Couturier scored the tiebreaking goal with 8:05 remaining in the third period Wednesday as the visiting Philadelphia Flyers earned an 8-5 victory over the New York Rangers.

The result leaves the Rangers (36-35-7, 79 points) on the verge of elimination from the Eastern Conference playoff race. New York lost its third straight game and trails the Montreal Canadiens by eight points for the second wild-card spot with four games remaining.

The already-eliminated Flyers (32-37-9, 73 points) won for the fourth time in five games under interim coach Brad Shaw.

In a game that was tied four times, Couturier snapped a 4-4 tie by getting to the net alone. After goalie Jonathan Quick stopped a long shot from rookie Matvei Michkov, the puck was loose in front of the crease for Couturier to put the rebound by Quick.

About four minutes after Couturier scored, the Flyers padded the lead when Foerster blasted a one-timer from the right circle for his second goal of the game. That tally proved to be the game-winner when Chris Kreider scored with 1:50 left to get New York within 6-5.

Foerster finished off his hat trick by scoring into an empty-net with 55 seconds left, and Owen Tippett added Philadelphia’s second empty-netter in the final seconds.

J.T. Miller gave the Rangers a 4-3 lead with a slap shot from above the right circle with 11:59 left in the third period. However, a minute later, the Flyers’ Jakob Pelletier crashed the net unchecked and got the rebound of Owen Tippett’s shot to bounce over Quick’s glove to tie the game for the fourth time.

Jonny Brodzinski scored a tying goal with 14:22 left on a sharp angle shot from the left circle after Travis Sanheim gave the Flyers a 3-2 lead 3:05 into the third by pouncing on a loose puck and scoring into a vacated net.

Artemi Panarin scored his 300th career goal and Vincent Trocheck also tallied for the Rangers, who made numerous defensive mistakes in the third and dropped to 3-7-1 in their past 11. Mika Zibanejad had four assists after missing the net on a penalty shot 75 seconds into the contest.

Foerster scored his first goal midway through the second and Garnet Hathaway netted a short-handed goal for the Flyers, who have scored 25 goals under Shaw.

Aleksei Kolosov made 24 saves for the win. Quick stopped 22 shots.

–Field Level Media