POSTGAME 5: Islanders Nip Flyers, 2-1
The Philadelphia Flyers lost to the New York Islanders, 2-1, at the Wells Fargo Center on Monday evening
The Flyers were heavily outshot and outchanced in the first period. A power play goal by Kyle Palmieri (7th) of the season at 17:07 was the only goal of the stanza for either team.
In the second period, a deflection goal by Mathew Barzal (13th) at 8:18 was soon answered back by a Nicolas Deslauriers (3rd) deflection tally at 10:39. The Flyers played a much stronger middle stanza compared to the first period but exited with another one-goal deficit.
The tight-checking third period was scoreless. Final shots on goal were 30-26 in the Islanders' favor. Carter Hart stopped 28 of 30 shots in a losing cause. Semyon Varlamov earned the win with 25 saves.
The Flyers went 0-for-2 on the power play. The Islanders were 1-for-3.
FLYERS STARTING LINEUP
25 James van Riemsdyk - 49 Noah Cates - 11 Travis Konecny
13 Kevin Hayes - 21 Scott Laughton - 74 Owen Tippett
86 Joel Farabee - 48 Morgan Frost - 57 Wade Allison
44 Nicolas Deslauriers - 38 Patrick Brown - 20 Kieffer Bellows
9 Ivan Provorov - 45 Cam York
6 Travis Sanheim - 55 Rasmus Ristolainen
24 Nick Seeler - 77 Tony DeAngelo
79 Carter Hart
[32 Felix Sandström]
TURNING POINT
The Flyers played a defensively solid final 40 minutes after a dicey first period. But a lost weak side coverage and then an overplay led to the eventual game-winning goal on Barzal's deflection.
MELTZER'S TAKE
1) In the opening minute of the game, the Islanders twice came within a whisker of a goal in a matter of seconds. Bo Horvat narrowly missed a backdoor goal and an Alexander Romanov shot rattled around but did not cross the goal line.
At 1:14, Hayes chipped the puck over the glass from the defensive zone for a delay of game penalty. The Flyers did a good job at killing off the penalty. Shots were 3-0 Islanders through 3:14.
Tippett blocked a shot and had an impressive counterrush the other way. On the next shift, Cates and JVR narrowly missed connections with van Riemsdyk cutting down the slot.
At 7:27 of the first period, Hart made his ninth save. At 10:53, Hart stopped a Bo Horvat shot from over the middle between the circles. Simon Holmström hit the post at 11:56. Hart made his 13th save at 13:41, denying Horvat after a York turnover.
Around the 15:00 mark, Laughton and Ristolainen combined on a sandwich hit on Zach Parise near the player benches at center ice.
The Islanders went on their second power play of the opening period at 15:28. Laughton was called for interference on a hit on Parise in the defensive zone corner.Hart made a tough save on Brock Nelson and Seeler blocked a follow-up attempt. New Yok took a 1-0 lead at 17:07. From over the middle, Josh Bailey passed to Kyle Palmieri in the left circle, who snapped a shot past Hart. Sebastian Aho earned the secondary assist on the power play goal. The goal ended an 0-for-26 power play drought for New York.
2) First period shots on goal were 14-7 in the Islanders' favor (32-18 shot attempt edge). Scoring chances were 19-6 Islanders (12-3 high-danger edge to New York). The Flyers blocked eight New York shot attempts while the Islanders snuffed out six Flyers shot attempts. Faceoffs were 9-9 (Cates led the Flyers, winning five of seven).
Just as the underlying would suggest, the Flyers spent far too much time defending in the first period. They also got lucky on a couple of near-goals and Hart stepped up on others. On the whole, getting to intermission trailing 1-0 wasn't too bad. It could have been much worse.
3) The hustle of Owen Tippett created the Flyers' first power play at 1:13 of the second period. Aho grabbed hold of Tippett as he skated past him along the boards. The Flyers PP1 unit generated two looks including a chance in close for van Riemsdyk.
After the penalty expired, Hayes set up a chance from the slot for Tippett. Shots on goal were 3-0 Flyers through 5:30.
Frost backhanded a shot on net at 6:24 from the bottom of the right circle. Allison then deflected a shot on net from in close. At 7:10 the Islanders' net came off its moorings as Deslauriers crashed the net. Shots were 5-0 Flyers at this point.
The Islanders built a 2-0 lead at 8:18. The Flyers had no weak side winger coverage as Dobson had room to pinch in from the right point. Hart came out to challenge, but Barzal tipped the puck into the net from the back door. The assists went to Dobson and Nelson.
Philly answered back quickly at 10:34. Seeler wheeled around the boards in the New York zone. At the point, he passed over to DeAngelo. DeAngelo had layers of traffic in front and Deslauriers deflected the puck home to narrow the gap to 2-1. The assists went to DeAngelo and Seeler.
Hayes got a hooking penalty at 12:07. The Islanders went on their third power play. The Flyers killed it off with authority, including a shorthanded rush opportunity for Laughton. After the penalty expired, Farabee wisely elected to shoot on a 2-on-1. Varlamov made the save.
At 16:36, Laughton landed a solid bodycheck on Dobson in the left corner of the Islanders' zone. There was a stoppage of play at 16:58. Shots in the period were 11-6 Flyers.
A deflected shot narrowly missed the net in the Flyers zone in the final two minutes of the second period. At the other end of the ice, Konecny created a scramble near the New York net.
4) Second period shots on goal were 11-8 in the Flyers' favor. Shot attempts were even at 17-17. Scoring chances 11-6 in the Flyers' favor with a 4-1 high-danger edge to Philly. Second period faceoffs were 9-7 Flyers (Cates was 7-for-10 through two periods). Hits through two periods favored the Flyers, 23-16. Brown was credited with four hits amid some solid forechecking work. Blocked shots through two periods were 16-14 Flyers. Seeler led the way with four credited hits through two periods.
5) The Cates line started the third period with a strong forechecking/possession shift. The Islanders iced the puck at the 55-second mark. Laughton lost the ensuing left circle draw.
Tippett made a perfect bank pass ahead to Laughton. Varlamov gloved the short-side shot attempt from the right circle at 5:36. Shots were 2-1 Islanders.
The checking was very tight for the next several minutes. At 8:25, Hart gloved down an unscreened point shot. Tippett drew another power play for the Flyers at 7:55, keeping his feet moving and getting slashed by Palmieri in the Islanders' zone. Both Flyers' PP units struggled to get anything set up.
Flying down the ice, Tippett was first to the pick in the Islanders to self-create a chance. Third period shots were 5-4 Flyers through 13:00. With 2;58 remaining, Frost had Farabee breaking for the net but was unable to deliver the puck in time for a deflection. Varlamov made the stop. Shots were 7-6 Islanders.
The Flyers pulled Hart for a 6-on-5 attack. The Flyers went offside with exactly 1:00 on the clock. Philly never generated a high-danger chance in the desperation push.
