Pat Pickens
The New York Islanders could have effectively put the Philadelphia Flyers’ season on ice if the Isles had started Friday night’s game on time.
Instead, the Flyers jumped out to an early two-goal advantage and rolled to a 4-1 win over the Isles at UBS Arena that gridlocked the race for the final Eastern Conference wild-card spot.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored the Isles’ lone goal, and Ilya Sorokin made 17 saves in defeat. The Islanders dropped their third straight game in regulation and their second straight at home.
New York now leads the Flyers and Columbus Blue Jackets by just one point for the No. 3 spot in the Metropolitan Division and are one point up on the Detroit Red Wings and Ottawa Senators for the final wild-card spot in the East.
Matvei Michkov had three points for the Flyers, including a second-period goal, and Dan Vladar made 20 saves for Philadelphia. The Flyers, who are tied for the final playoff spot in the East yet sit 10th due to tiebreakers, snapped a two-game losing skid and won for the seventh time in their past 10 games.
Key Takeaways After the Islanders’ 4-1 Loss to the Flyers
Slow Start Dooms the Islanders
The Flyers played Thursday night and lost a crucial home game in regulation to the Red Wings. They entered with about an 11% chance of making the playoffs. With a regulation win, the Islanders could have pulled five points up on Philadelphia, and three points up on the idle Blue Jackets, with only five games to play.
Yet, the Islanders came out the first period like a team run playing out the string. The Flyers registered nine of the game’s first 10 shots and scored twice while outshooting New York 12-2 over the first 20 minutes.
“It was not even close to a good enough effort for us tonight in a big hockey game against a team that’s chasing us in the standings,” Islanders forward Bo Horvat said. “We’ve got to be a heck of a lot better than we were tonight.”
The Islanders only had five shot attempts in the first period, and the Flyers out-chanced the Islanders 7-1. The Islanders did not record a high-danger scoring chance in the first period.
Yet, the Isles nearly escaped the frame unscathed, since Sorokin stopped the first eight shots against until Owen Tippett redirected Travis Sanheim’s pass in at 13:54. Just 67 seconds later, Alex Bump made it 2-0 at 15:01, which caused coach Patrick Roy to use his timeout.
“I’ll take part of the blame for the first period,” Roy said. “I have a job to do, to make sure our team is ready to play a strong game, and we’re together in this. We called the timeout, and after that we started playing more our game.
“Give credit to them for the start of the game.”
Ilya Sorokin’s Struggles Continued
Sorokin is used to lugging the Islanders into playoff contention. But this year, he seems to be actively keeping New York from clinching a postseason spot.
Sorokin has given up 16 goals in his past four outings, and he has the third-worst all-situation goals-saved above average (minus-4.11) over the past week.
His struggles bled into Friday night too, since the Flyers scored four despite having 1.97 expected goals, according to Natural Stat Trick. Sorokin should have stopped at least Bump’s goal and Travis Sanheim’s third-period snap shot that gave the Flyers a 4-1 lead and effectively put the game away.
Roy, who of course is one of the greatest goalies to ever live, took the heat off Sorokin when asked how his goalie played.
“We didn’t do enough of a good job in front of him to protect him,” Roy said. “They had about four or five Grade A [chances] at the beginning of the game.”
Michkov banked a shot in off Sorokin from behind the goal to give the Flyers a 3-0 advantage, and Roy credited Sanheim’s shot on the Flyers’ fourth goal, even though Sorokin appeared to misjudge the shot.
“The third one was bad luck,” Roy said. “The fourth one trickled between his blocker and his arm, and they were good shots.”
The Islanders Had the Puck in The Flyers’ D-Zone Most of The Final Two Periods
The Islanders held the Flyers to just nine shots over the final 40 minutes and just 15 shot attempts over the last two periods. They did not give up an empty-net goal despite pulling Sorokin with eight minutes left in regulation.
New York held the puck in the Philadelphia end for large stretches over the final two periods. Despite Pageau’s goal, which cut the Flyers’ lead to 3-1 at 15:37 of the second, the Isles didn’t have too many flurries against the Philadelphia defense.
“I thought our second period was decent,” Horvat said. “But at that point it’s too late.”
The Islanders only finished the game with six high-danger scoring chances and had 1.27 expected goals, per Natural Stat Trick. New York went 0 for 3 on the power play with five shots.
“Our power play needs to be a heck of a lot better too,” Horvat said. “We had a number of opportunities, and we didn’t get it done.”
“The bottom line is, we didn’t do enough to win the hockey game,” Roy said.
Matthew Schaefer Played Goalie
If he wasn’t the Islanders’ best player on a night-in, night-out basis, they could put Matthew Schaefer in net.
Schaefer made four saves to deny Flyers’ third-period empty-net goals, including a desperate, diving effort to stymie Tippett of his second of the game.
Despite his minus-3 rating, Schaefer was the Islanders’ best player Friday. Aside from the saves, he drew a penalty, led the team in ice time (28:43) and blocked three shots — all in spite of the fact his lip was cut during the second period.
