Flyers edge Isles in shootout
NEW YORK -- Claude Giroux's lone shootout goal powered the Philadelphia Flyers to a 3-2 win over the New York Islanders at the Barclays Center on Thursday night.
The first of four meetings between the Metropolitan Division franchises was essentially an ode to the NHL's Dead Puck Era. Neither the Islanders nor the Flyers were able to generate a sustained attack in the neutral zone until Philadelphia scored midway through the second period.
It took one breakdown for Travis Konecny to open the scoring. The Flyers rookie center tucked a rebound of a right-wing drive past Islanders goaltender Jaroslav Halak to put the Flyers ahead 1-0. The goal was the culmination of a sequence which began with Philadelphia defenseman Radko Gudas springing Konecny with a home run pass from the neutral zone.
Halak made 40 saves but New York fell to 4-6-1, including suffering its fourth loss in the last five games.
The teams went into the second intermission 1-1 after center John Tavares' power-play goal at 19:31 of the period. Tavares tapped a cross-ice, goal mouth feed from center Casey Cizikas past Michal Neuvirth.
Neuvirth stopped 25 shots as Philadelphia, which recorded a third straight divisional win, improved to 6-5-1.
New York went ahead 2-1 on Dennis Seidenberg's fourth of the season with 7:05 left in regulation, but Flyers forward Matt Read tied the game with a power-play goal with 58 seconds left.
It was the second straight night the Flyers got a late equalizer to send the game in overtime. They beat Detroit on Wednesday with an OT goal.
NOTES: New York scratched rookie C Mathew Barzal and rookie LW Anthony Beauvillier. Both are on their entry-level contracts. Barzal has only played in two games this season for the Islanders and has been scratched eight times after being called up after the season opener. Beauvillier's scratch was his second of the season, and he has played in nine games. New York has to decide whether it's worth burning the first year of his entry-level deal. ... The Islanders also scratched G Jean-Francois Berube. ... Philadelphia scratched RW Dale Weise. The Flyers announced before the game LW Michael Raffl was activated from the injured reserve and would start the game on a line with C Claude Giroux and RW Wayne Simmonds. ... The Flyers said D Andrew MacDonald would miss a week with a lower-body injury and announced C Boyd Gordon had been placed on the injured reserve. Nick Schultz replaced MacDonald in the lineup.