NEW YORK -- Anthony Stolarz made 38 saves for the Philadelphia Flyers in their season-high fifth straight win, 1-0 against the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.

It was the first shutout of the season and second in the NHL for Stolarz, who had not played for the Flyers since sustaining a lower-body injury in the first period of a 5-1 loss at the Vancouver Canucks on Dec. 15.
"It's good getting the win," Stolarz said. "For me to come out there and kind of just hold the fort down for the team, they did a great job too. I think 3-to-1 we were out-blocking them (19-7), so credit to the boys in front of me."
WATCH: [All Flyers vs. Rangers highlights]
Oskar Lindblom scored for Philadelphia (21-23-6), which has outscored opponents 20-10 during the longest active winning streak in the NHL.
The Flyers have won six games in a row against the Rangers, shutting them out in three of the past four.
"I think there were probably five or six chances there that we could have put in and we're probably looking at a different outcome, but hats off to Stolarz], he played a great game for sure," Rangers defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk said. "You hate to be beat by the other team's goalie, but he came in here and stood tall."
[Alexandar Georgiev
made 18 saves for New York (21-21-7), which had won three straight games.
Lindblom gave Philadelphia a 1-0 lead at 1:40 of the first period when he scored on the rebound of a Sean Couturier shot.

"It was nice to get an early [goal]," Lindblom said. "We played very well in the [offensive] zone, and Stolarz was a monster back there, so it was a good game for us."
Stolarz is 3-3-2 with a 3.44 goals-against average and .896 save percentage in 10 games (eight starts) for the Flyers this season. He did not play in the NHL in 2017-18 after he had surgery on his left knee to repair a meniscus tear Sept. 7, 2017, less than five months after a knee injury ended his season for Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League.
"I've always dreamt of playing in the NHL, so to be able to come back from an injury like that and keep playing, you're going to want to keep going, so for me it's games like this that make it all worth it," he said. "You just want to go out there and focus on the next shot, that next save. ... Obviously with goaltending, there's a lot of pressure, but you don't want to put any added on yourself, so for me, I kind of just went out there, tried to do my job."
Stolarz made a left-pad save on Chris Kreider's shot from the slot at 13:55 of the second period with the Rangers on the power play.
"He played well," New York center Kevin Hayes said of Stolarz. "We had some really good opportunities. We didn't give them much actually. They scored early in the first and maybe had one or two good looks after that. I thought we played well as a team and obviously we didn't score, and when you don't score you can't win."
The Rangers had 66 shot attempts; the Flyers had 30.

They said it

"Points are at a premium now, so we are going to want to go in every night and we're going to have to play like it's a playoff game if we want to get back into this one." -- Flyers goalie Anthony Stolarz
"It wasn't maybe the perfect game or our best game, but I thought coming off this break and they got a little rust out yesterday, I thought we did a pretty good job. You limit them to under 20 shots and get over 35 and it's a 1-0 game, we're not happy with the result, but I think we can keep building off this." -- Rangers center Mika Zibanejad
"We don't have to worry about [a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs] right now, we have to worry about what's in front of us. ... When it's all said and done, you can't look too far in the future." -- Flyers coach Scott Gordon

Need to know

Rangers forward Brett Howden left the game at 13:35 of the first period with a sprained knee. Coach David Quinn said he probably will be "out for a little a while." ... Stolarz's first NHL shutout was a 1-0 overtime win against the Detroit Red Wings on Dec. 11, 2016. ... Hayes had six shots on goal in 22:25 in his first game since Jan. 2. He missed nine games with an upper-body injury. ... The Rangers have not defeated the Flyers since a 5-1 win at home Jan. 16, 2018. ... Couturier has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in his past eight games. ... Philadelphia defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere missed his second straight game with a lower-body injury. ... New York forward Mats Zuccarello did not play because of a foot infection and is day to day.

What's next

Flyers: At the Boston Bruins on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN, TVAS, NESN, NBCSP+, NHL.TV)
Rangers:At the New Jersey Devils on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, MSG+, MSG, NHL.TV)