The Philadelphia Flyers, icing what was assuredly a pedestrian lineup filled out by prospects and AHLers, succumbed to their defensive mistakes on Monday night, allowing the New York Islanders to survive the comeback attempt and score at the death to secure a 4-3 victory at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y.
Goaltending was the story for much of the contest, as Islanders goalie Jakub Skarek and Flyers goalie Ivan Fedotov dueled back and forth for the first half of the game.
Mat Barzal opened the scoring for New York on the power play with just over a minute left in the period, rifling a shot into the far right corner all thanks to Maxim Tsyplakov, whose moving screen and flailing arms prevented Fedotov from seeing the puck and Barzal’s release.
It was Olle Lycksell’s tripping penalty, and the Flyers’ fourth penalty of the period, that put the Isles on the power play. That was just a microcosm of the sloppy mistakes that doomed the Flyers on Monday night.
Veteran forward Anthony Richard, vying for a roster spot alongside Lycksell, tied the game at 1-1 with a power play goal of his own, though it wasn’t as flashy as Barzal’s.
With Lycksell crashing the crease, Richard attempted to direct his pass into a danger area, only for Islanders defenseman Alexander Romanov to deflect the pass between Skarek’s legs with the blade of his stick, causing an own goal.
Although he obviously did not get credit for the goal, props to Lycksell for atoning for his earlier mistake and creating the scoring chance by attacking the net.
Just under four minutes later, Kyle MacLean equalized on a fancy passing play after Richard and defenseman Adam Ginning both failed to clear the defensive zone from their own blueline.
Ginning, in particular, takes most of the blame for this, dwelling on the puck for too long before getting bowled over, thus creating the 2-on-1 that MacLean and Casey Cizikas capitalized on.
Fedotov made his best effort, staying square and respecting Cizikas’s shot, but going down to the spread eagle wasn’t enough to make the save with nobody covering MacLean at the back door next to him.
Later in the period, and once again on the power play, the Islanders took advantage of another failed clearance, this time from defenseman Rasmus Ristolainen and forward Rhett Gardner. Ristolainen got too cute with the puck, trying to waste time, and lost control behind his own net, while Gardner fumbled the handle on the puck and subsequently lost the ensuing board battle.
With nobody left out high to cover Kyle Palmieri, the former New Jersey Devil teed up Mike Reilly’s one-timer, which was deflected past Fedotov by Islanders captain Anders Lee.
On that note, with half the game in the books, Fedotov made way for Flyers rookie Alexei Kolosov after 13 saves on 16 shots in 31:04.
Within three minutes, Kolosov managed to stabilize the Flyers and inspire the team to a comeback bid.
Emil Andrae’s long-range wrist shot was, perhaps accidentally, deflected past Skarek by Brendan Furry, bringing the Flyers within one goal with over 25 minutes of game time remaining.
Just over two minutes into the second period, Ristolainen punished Scott Mayfield for his high-sticking penalty, going to the ground to whack the puck past Skarek from the left circle off a slick pass from Joel Farabee for the Flyers’ second and final power play goal of the night.
Kolosov would continue to make a number of glove saves to keep the Flyers in it, using his low center of gravity to bend and look around the Islanders’ screens to maintain his sightlines. Although the 22-year-old Belarusian was putting in a shift, his valiant efforts ultimately went to waste in the dying seconds of the game.
With only 51 seconds to go, Mayfield’s soft dump-in from the blueline found a blazing Kyle Palmieri, who beat Helge Grans to the puck after a line change and cooly deposited past Kolosov after dangling and waiting out everybody in the building.
With nothing doing in the last 50 seconds of the match, the Flyers ultimately lost 4-3 to the Islanders, mostly thanks to untimely and basic mistakes.
