PHILADELPHIA – First they couldn’t win. Then they couldn’t win on the road.

Now, they can’t lose.

And after last night’s 4-3 shootout win in Philadelphia - and winning eight of nine - the Rangers are tied for first place.

“We all felt it coming,” said Sean Avery who had two assists on the night. “This is a tight group of guys who are genuinely upset after a loss. We don’t like to lose. That’s contagious on [the younger guys]. We are building a team here.”

This win could also be considered a team victory. To give the Flyers their first loss at home, the Blueshirts had to get scoring for Fedor Tyutin, Brendan Shanahan, and Petr Prucha and rely on Shanahan’s heavy shot in the shootout to net the Rangers the tough road two points.

“The big key to us in shootouts is Hank [Lundqvist],” Shanahan said of his goalie. “He puts you in a position where you're skating up the ice with the puck with a chance to win it as opposed to playing from behind.”

Lundqvist stopped Daniel Briere with a poke check, which he said was recommended to him by Briere’s former teammate Chris Drury to start the shootout and then prevented Mike Richards and Scottie Upshall from scoring after stopping 20 of 23 shots in the game.

Shanahan, going second for the Rangers buried a shot – much like Saturday in Toronto right over Martin Biron’s glove.

“That's what I said to him after he buried that shootout goal, said Avery. “I said, 'I don't know who said you're washed up, but not too many guys can go in 100 miles an hour and shoot an absolute laser top shelf. So he's playing well. We feel good as a line and I don't think he's going to stop scoring.”

That was after the hard fought 65 minutes by the Rangers, who went back and forth with the Flyers to get it to the shootout.

And like the match in Jersey the night before, Lundqvist gave up a goal early to former Devil Jim Dowd 3:53 into the match to give Philly an early lead.

Yet, the Rangers were able to come back with less than five minutes in the fist as Tyutin took a pass from Scott Gomez and beat Biron [26 saves] stick side to tie the game.

Then Shanahan took over after Avery took a rebound and sent it down to Gomez, he fed No. 14 to give the Blueshirts the lead for the first time.

“He’s the ultimate power forward,” said Gomez, who also had two assists on the night. “If you look at power forwards, they drop off after a certain age. He’s shot it so quick when he gets open. If you look at him in practice, it’s amazing what he works on.”

Although the Flyers were able to come back later in the second on a power play goal by Briere and then in the third with Denis Tolpeko’s first NHL goal after Prucha put the Rangers up 3-2, it was Shanahan’s heroics that were able to save the day.

It gave the Rangers their third road win of the season and a three game road winning streak.

“It was a matter of time,” Lundqvist said. “We were playing well on the road all season and should have won on Long Island. The first couple of weeks, we stayed patient and believed we were close and not that far away of getting the win. We just go out and play and believe in our system.

“So far, it’s been good.”