NEW YORK -- The Philadelphia Flyers are doing whatever it takes to the right their ship. The New York Rangers are trying to prevent theirs from sinking.

Right winger Wayne Simmonds scored twice and goaltender Steve Mason stopped 24 shots as the Flyers defeated the Rangers 3-0 at Madison Square Garden on Saturday afternoon for their second straight victory, a feat that had not been accomplished in nearly five weeks.

The Flyers won at MSG in the regular season for the first time since March 6, 2011 - a span of 10 games.

"I didn't know it was 10, but I knew it was a long time," Simmonds said. "We haven't won here in the regular season too often but this was a huge victory for us."

The victory seemed unlikely in the early going as the Flyers (9-10-5) were forced to play with four defensemen for nearly one-third of the game as Nick Schultz left during the first period with an upper-body injury and Luke Schenn received 17 minutes in penalties resulting from a fight in the aftermath of Schultz's injury.

Rangers defenseman Dylan McIlrath leveled Schultz with a clean hit along the boards, resulting in Schenn arriving to defend his teammate. The Flyers also survived a two-minute stretch without defenseman Radko Gudas, who took a minor penalty with Schultz and Schenn unavailable.

It may not have been the smartest way to go about winning a game, but it worked for the Flyers.

"That's a tough situation, especially in a back-to-back game," said Flyers coach Dave Hakstol, whose team beat Nashville on Friday. "They just did the job. I think Luke did what a good teammate would do, and I give him a lot of credit for that. The rest of the guys did their job."

Mason, especially, did his job. With Schenn and Schultz out, the Rangers fired 10 of the next 12 shots on net and Mason stopped them all en route to his first shutout in 27 games.

"That's when they had their biggest push," Mason said of the Rangers in the first period. "But you look at the game as a whole, I thought our energy level and compete throughout the whole entire game was a huge factor in determining the outcome of the game."

The Rangers (16-6-2), meanwhile, have lost three straight in regulation for the first time this season after winning 11 of 12. Goaltender Antti Raanta was the lone bright spot as he stopped 31 of 33 shots and held the fort during an extended 5-on-3 advantage for the Flyers in the third period.

"I would say the honest answer is that for some parts of some games, we haven't been as good as we can be," Rangers coach Alain Vigneault said. "We've probably gotten some of those wins because of extraordinary goaltending. I thought we had another extraordinary goaltending performance today but the rest of our game was absent in the second and third."

"We are getting challenged right now as a group," Rangers center Derick Brassard said. "We just have to answer in the next game."

The entire Flyers' season has been a challenge and the line of Simmonds, left winger Matt Read and center Sean Couturier have embodied that. They combined for all three goals Saturday - Couturier made it 2-0 early in the third period - but entered the game with a combined seven goals this season.

"We've been getting chances," Simmonds said. "Sometimes things don't fall your way. All you can really do is keep working hard and doing the things you feel are right. That's what we're trying to do."

NOTES: The Flyers' only victory at Madison Square Garden since March 6, 2011 was Game 2 of the 2014 Eastern Conference quarterfinals. The Flyers lost the other three games of that series at MSG. ... Flyers C Vinny Lecavalier was a healthy scratch. The 35-year-old has one assist in seven games. ... Rangers C Derek Stepan (ribs) is out indefinitely. He suffered the injury Friday afternoon in Boston as a result of a hit by Bruins LW Matt Beleskey. ... Rangers D Dan Boyle was a healthy scratch for a second straight game. The 39-year-old has zero goals and four assists in 18 games.