3 Takeaways: Isles Earn Point in 1-0 Shootout Loss to Flyers

The New York Islanders came up empty on the scoresheet on Saturday night, but they didn’t come away empty-handed, picking up a point in a 1-0 shootout loss to the Philadelphia Flyers at UBS Arena.

Tyson Foerster scored the lone goal in a four-round shootout, powering the Flyers to their first win in six tries at UBS Arena. Ilya Sorokin (40 saves) and Samuel Ersson (25 saves) each kept a clean sheet through 65 minutes and were credited with the rare double shutout.

The loss snapped the Islanders three-game winning streak. The Isles are now 3-0-3 in their last six games.

OFFENSE COMES UP EMPTY AS ISLES PLAY THIRD GAME IN FOUR NIGHTS:

After scoring at least three goals in each of their last five contests, the Islanders offense came up empty on Saturday night.

The Isles were outshot 40-25 in the game, never generating double-digit shots in any of the three regulation or overtime periods. The Islanders had their spurts – like six shots in the first 3:05 of the first period – but it was followed up by long droughts. After those six quick shots, the Isles were unable to land a shot on goal in the final 17 minutes of the first period.

Part of that was due to Philadelphia blocking 26 Islanders’ shots on Saturday night, but the Isles simply could not generate enough sustained pressure. The Isles were only credited with eight high-danger chances at five-on-five, per Natural Stat Trick.

“We weren't really executing coming up the ice,” Kyle Palmieri said. “We had a couple good shifts the offensive zone just couldn't really follow it up with more sustained pressure.”

Part of that could also be due to the schedule. Both teams were on the second night of a back-to-back while also playing their third game in four nights, so it was understandable if portions of Saturday night’s game looked a little ugly.

The back-to-back was especially taxing on the four Islanders defensemen who played in both contests. Noah Dobson played 28:41 on Saturday, 24 hours after skating a career-high 31:05. Alexander Romanov logged 22:52 after logging 30:02 on Friday. Ryan Pulock played 23:33 on Saturday after skating over 28 minutes in Ottawa, while Scott Mayfield played 21:10 after playing over 26 minutes on Friday.

“The effort was outstanding,” Head Coach Lane Lambert said. “We’ve played a lot of hockey lately and traveled a lot lately including last night. The four defensemen that played last night played a ton of minutes last night. It wasn't necessarily pretty at times, but I thought we gutted it out. And we battled and I give our team full marks.”

If the first 60 minutes was close-checking and stifling, the three-on-three overtime was anything but. The teams traded chances, with the Islanders getting plenty of good looks at Ersson. Simon Holmstrom narrowly missed a shot high short side on Ersson, one of his four missed shots on the night.

Eventually the game went to a shootout, where Bo Horvat, Oliver Wahlstrom, Mathew Barzal and Kyle Palmieri were denied and Foerster eventually won it for the Flyers.

“It was a tight hockey game,” Anders Lee said. “We just didn't take advantage of our looks. We made some great plays in OT and we just didn't get them to go in. That's the way it's going to go sometimes and unfortunately, we’ve got to live with only getting one tonight.”

SOROKIN SHARP IN SHUTOUT LOSS:

Ilya Sorokin was one of the few fresh legs in for the Islanders on Saturday and was easily the team’s best player, turning aside 40 shots to record his second shutout of the season and 18^th of his career.

The Russian netminder kept his team within striking distance all night, coming up with key saves on Sean Couturier at the end of the first period and a quality look on Owen Tippett in the second. He stopped all 12 of the Flyers high-danger chances at five-on-five and his best work came in the overtime, denying Flyers leading scorer Travis Sanheim in the slot and making a big blocker save on leading goal scorer Travis Konecny in OT to force the shootout.

“I don't know what else he could have done,” Kyle Palmieri said. “He made some huge saves and kept us in it when things weren't going well and we were getting hemmed in. Both our goalies give us a chance like that and Ilya played a great game.”

HUTTON MAKES SEASON DEBUT, GAUTHIER AND BOLDUC DRAW IN:

With Adam Pelech and Sebastian Aho suffering upper-body injuries on Friday night, Samuel Bolduc and Grant Hutton drew into the Isles lineup on Saturday.

The two defensemen – who entered the game with a combined 43 games of NHL – played together as a pairing. Bolduc played 12:44 – Lambert said his game got better as the night wore on – while Hutton played 10:11 with two hits and a blocked shot.

“Being able to earn the spot to come back up here and play with these guys was awesome,” Hutton said. “It means a lot to me and my family, my wife got to drive up today and watch and that was just a huge opportunity and I'll try to take advantage of it.”

Julien Gauthier also drew into the lineup on Saturday, taking the place of Hudson Fasching and giving the Islanders some fresh legs. Gauthier played with Casey Cizikas and Cal Clutterbuck – the latter of whom was honored with a silver stick ceremony before the game – and logged a team-high five hits along with four shots.

NEXT GAME:

The Islanders take on the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday evening from Prudential Center, kicking off a three-game road trip. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.