In a game that the Philadelphia Flyers (24-18-9) needed to have, they were completely stymied by the New York Islanders (28-19-5), falling by a score of 4-0.
In contrast to their game against the Colorado Avalanche on Friday, the Flyers came back home with very little juice, and any chances they did have were swallowed up by goaltender Ilya Sorokin, who improved his already fantastic numbers against the Orange and Black.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau opened and finished the scoring, with his first goal being the game-winner shorthanded. He took advantage of a miscue between Samuel Ersson and Jamie Drysdale, and that was all they needed for the victory.
Mathew Barzal and Tony DeAngelo added goals in the second period and Sorokin made 21 saves, as the Islanders increased their breathing room against the Flyers by 4 points – with one more game played than Philadelphia.
FIRST PERIOD
With the Flyers on their second power play of the period, it was the New York Islanders who took advantage, as Jean-Gabriel Pageau got the game’s first goal while shorthanded. Samuel Ersson pushed a clearing attempt aside, to which Casey Cizikas regained control of the puck, and found Pageau all alone in front of the net.
It seemed as if Jamie Drysdale was expecting Ersson to catch the puck and play it off to a teammate, rather than steering it aside to the corner, because he was caught flat-footed, which then allowed Cizikas to get to the puck first and find Pageau for the goal at the 14:29 mark of the period.
Outside of the one blunder, it was a solid period for both teams, in a game that had a lot of playoff implications. The Flyers held a 7-6 advantage in shots, as well as a 2-1 lead in power play opportunities.
SECOND PERIOD
After striking out on their third power play opportunity of the night, the Islanders once again took advantage, this time courtesy of Mathew Barzal. The top line for the Islanders hemmed the Flyers in their own zone for quite some time with a strong cycle shift before Isaiah George’s point shot was eventually deflected by Barzal and past a befuddled Ersson at the 5:41 mark.
With just 19 seconds remaining on Cam York’s minor, the Islanders added to their total with a one-timer from Tony DeAngelo. They did a great job on the counter attack after Emil Andrae couldn’t handle an Owen Tippett pass in the offensive zone, before Anthony Duclair, Barzal, and DeAngelo jumped on an odd-man rush the other way with 7:10 remaining.
The period came to a close with the Flyers trailing by 3 heading into the final frame of regulation. It was a prototypical game between these two with not much action and Ilya Sorokin doing his best to keep the Flyers off the board and incredibly frustrated.
THIRD PERIOD
It was a sleepy third period for the Flyers, who weren’t able to create much of anything against the Islanders. They were forced into killing a Tippett high-sticking minor, but there was very little action to write to home about.
One thing of note is that head coach Rick Tocchet promoted Matvei Michkov to the top line alongside Christian Dvorak and Travis Konecny. Trevor Zegras had another quiet night and was thus moved to the third line next to Noah Cates and Bobby Brink.
All hope of a comeback was officially killed with 6:16 remaining after Pageau scored his second of the game and 10th of the season. The Flyers were completely caught flat-footed as Pageau was ahead of all the orange jerseys, and Maxim Tysplakov made no mistake in finding his teammate with a great backhand pass.
UP NEXT
The Flyers will look to regroup and get back in the win column on Wednesday when they visit the Columbus Blue Jackets.
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