The Philadelphia Flyers wrapped up another set of back-to-back games with a matchup against the New York Islanders on home ice. Owen Tippett is still out after taking a big hit from Brendan Dillon yesterday, so the team recalled Adam Ginning from Lehigh Valley. Erik Johnson came out of the lineup for Ginning. Defensive breakdowns and turnovers, yet again, proved to be costly for the Flyers as the Islanders shut them out 3-0. The Flyers fall back under .500 to 23-24-6 on the season.
Scott Laughton dropped the gloves with Maxim Tysplakov at the 4:51 mark of the first period. Laughton got the best of him and threw all the punches. Tsplakov injured Ryan Poehling a few matchups ago, so this was probably payback.
The Flyers got the game’s first power play at the 12:01 mark of the first period as Adam Pelech was called for high-sticking. There was blood drawn, so it was a double minor. They got a few shots on net and a disallowed goal. Matvei Michkov had put a wrist shot past the blocker of Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin but was disallowed due to goaltender interference by Morgan Frost.
The Islanders got their first power play at the 1:12 mark of the second period as Tyson Foerster was called for tripping. They only managed to get one shot on net and the Flyers did a nice job of stealing and clearing the puck. Laughton and Travis Konecny almost had a great scoring chance while shorthanded.
Simon Holmstrom gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead at the 10:02 mark of the second period. Sean Couturier blocked his first shot but the rebound came back to him. He then put a wrist shot off the crossbar and in the net past the blocker of Flyers goaltender Ivan Fedotov. Scott Perunovich and Jean-Gabriel Pageau collected assists.
Bobby Brink was called for high-sticking at the 14:05 mark of the second period, which gave the Islanders their second power play. The Islanders didn’t record any shots on net on this one, but they did spend the majority of the time in the offensive zone.
Marc Gatcomb scored his first goal in the NHL to give the Islanders a 2-0 lead at the 17:08 mark of the second period. Kyle MacLean made a nice cross-ice pass to him in front of the net and Gatcomb put a snap shot past the glove of Fedotov. MacLean and Tysplakov tallied assists.
The game went to four-on-four at the 8:11 mark of the third period as Joel Farabee was called for slashing and Brock Nelson for hooking. The Islanders capitalized on this opportunity courtesy of Kyle Palmieri at the 9:53 mark of the third period. He got around Flyers defenseman Jamie Drysdale and put a wrist shot over the glove of Fedotov. Casey Cizikas and Pelech were given assists.
The Flyers got their third power play at the 12:36 mark of the third period as Perunovich was called for closing his hand on the puck. They didn’t record a single shot on net and passed the puck instead of shoot. The Islanders got a great scoring chance while shorthanded at the very end.
The Flyers went 0 for 3 on the power play but killed off both of the Islanders man-advantages.
Fedotov didn’t get much help from his team in this game. He saved 25 of 28 shots, giving him a .893 save percentage.
Goal Summary
1st Period:
No goals
2nd Period:
Holmstrom (13) Assists: Perunovich (6), Pageau (16)
Gatcomb (1) Assists: MacLean (4), Tsyplakov (13)
3rd Period:
Palmieri (13) Assists: Cizikas (4), Pelech (12)
Flyers Next Game
Flyers next game is Sunday, Feb 1. in Colorado against the Avalanche.