6 hours Ago By Russ Macias, NYI Hockey Now
PHILADELPHIA — The New York Islanders (23-20-7) marched into the Wells Fargo Center and soundly defeated the Philadelphia Flyers (23-24-6) 3-0 on Thursday night. Marc Gatcomb scored his first NHL goal, while Simon Holmstrom remained red-hot. Ilya Sorokin recorded his third shutout of the season as the Islanders won their sixth straight game.
The game started with some high-paced action, including Maxim Tsyplakov’s first-ever NHL fight. Eventually, the game settled in. Much like recent games, the Islanders played strong defense and received excellent goaltending, all while utilizing a potent rush attack that yielded another pair of goals.
Sorokin , in yet another sparkling performance, recorded 23 saves in the shutout. Ivan Fedotov denied 25 in the loss. The Flyers were shutout in New Jersey 5-0 last night and returned home and showed no pulse, so little in fact that their General Manager Daniel Briere made a trade during that started to leak involving players in orange, white, and black in the dying seconds of an empty Wells Fargo Center.
First Period: The Islanders and Flyers both came out hard, with chances buzzing on both ends. Tyson Foerster had an early one-timer turned away by Sorokin. Early, it became clear Philadelphia had a target on Tsyplakov .
The Flyers fans jeered when Tsyplakov touched the puck early, and then the Flyers enforcer Garnet Hathaway laid a hit on him early. Before Tsyplakov’s next shift, Scott Laughton challenged him to a bout of fisticuffs to answer for the hit he laid on the still-injured Ryan Poehling two weeks ago. Laughton got the better of him, but the Islanders benched loved to see Tsyplakov answer the bell in his first career fight against a well-versed fighter in Laughton.
The teams combined for 11 shots on net and a fight through just six minutes of play. Later in the period, Adam Pelech caught Travis Konecny up high, and the referees whistled him for a double-minor. After an okay first two minutes of the kill, Matvei Michkov sent a hard wrister past Ilya Sorokin for a 1-0 lead- or so the Flyers thought.
Morgan Frost had entered the crease and directly impeded Sorokin’s ability to make the save. Islanders coach Patrick Roy challenged and wiped away an opponent’s goal for the second game in a row. The rest of the kill went smoothly, including a Jean-Gabriel Pageau breakaway that Fedotov turned aside.
The rest of the period had limited activity, and the period came to a close, tied at 0. Second Period: The Islanders received an early power play after Foerster hauled down Bo Horvat. The power play for New York remained anemic and honestly felt truly ugly.
No possession, no clean entries. Just ugly. Luckily for New York, the hottest man on the team scored his third goal in two and a half periods when Simon Holmstrom broke the ice with an absolute snipe on Fedotov.
Scott Perunovich received a primary assist as he boxed out his man while fighting for the puck. Holmstrom scooped up the change and ripped it from the top of the right circle. Holmstrom , the calmest man in the building, hardly reacted to his goal, as always.
The Islanders barely touched the puck for the next few minutes of game time. Sorokin made his best save of the game when Foerster stole the puck off of Pelech and fed Noah Cates on the backdoor. Sorokin lunged and somehow got it with the knob of his stick to keep the Islanders ahead.
Moments later, the Flyers took another penalty. This time, Bobby Brink caught Anthony Duclair with a high stick. Once again, the Islanders’ power play failed to generate much, but it did settle the team down.
After the power play, Roy sent out his fourth line, looking for momentum. Tsyplakov settled the puck in the neutral zone as Philadelphia attempted an ill-timed change. He sent a perfect pass to Kyle MacLean, who walked in on a two-on-none rush chance with rookie Marc Gatcomb.
MacLean patiently waited and slid a perfect pass to Gatcomb, who easily chipped it in. His reaction said it all: he leaped for joy and smiled wide as he celebrated his first NHL goal. The rest of the period played out calmly as the Philadelphia crowd booed their team off the ice.
Philadelphia had been outscored 7-0 over the last five periods of hockey to that point. Third Period: The Islanders held a 2-0 lead in the third period in Philadelphia. Flyers coach John Tortorella opted to bench Michkov after the two were seen having a less-than-friendly conversation.
That decision came after the Flyers lost Frost to injury for the rest of the game. Yes, Philadelphia opted to play with only 10 forwards while trailing 2-0 in a game that had serious ramifications for what’s left of their playoff aspirations. Logic-defying is one choice of words, but Tortorella, coaching in his 1,600th NHL game, is a man set in his ways.
Meanwhile, New York took advantage. Early in the period, the top line buzzed, and Horvat nearly had a backdoor rebound goal, but Fedotov went all out to keep the game within reach for Philadelphia. Eventually, during a four-on-four, Kyle Palmieri received a pass from Casey Cizikas.
Palmieri barreled in with a head of steam and snapped his 15-game goalless drought with an absolute snipe over Fedotov’s glove. That was the dagger, and Philadelphia didn’t rush the rest of the night. The entire third period felt so clinical that Barry Trotz was somewhere smiling.
Current coach Roy continues to push all the right buttons for the Islanders lately and has the team absolutely rolling as they head to Florida for a weekend back-to-back with the Lightning and Panthers. This article first appeared on NYI Hockey Now and was syndicated with permission..
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