Flyers 3, Islanders 2
Sergei Bobrovsky turned aside 33 shots and Scott Hartnell netted his team-leading 19th goal of the season as the Philadelphia Flyers maintained their mastery of the New York Islanders with a 3-2 road triumph on Thursday.
Wayne Simmonds and rookie Sean Couturier also tallied and All-Stars Claude Giroux and defenseman Kimmo Timonen notched an assist apiece for Philadelphia, which has defeated its Atlantic Division rival on eight straight occasions and 23 of the last 24 contests.
Bobrovsky was on top of his game in this one. After stopping Michael Grabner on a penalty shot in the first period, the Russian netminder made a brilliant glove save on Grabner's backhander in the second.
Evgeni Nabokov, who was denied in his bid for victory No. 300, finished with 19 saves and fell to 6-1-2 in his career versus the Flyers.
Hartnell opened the scoring with 2:40 remaining in the first period. With his team on the power play, Hartnell deflected Jaromir Jagr's centering feed past Nabokov.
Simmonds doubled the advantage 13:08 into the second period - with plenty of unintentional help from Nabokov. The 36-year-old Russian netminder had difficulty playing the puck behind his net before turning it over. Simmonds eventually settled the puck and alertly fired a shot off Nabokov from a sharp angle and into the net for his 11th goal of the season.
All-Star John Tavares collected a goal and an assist and Kyle Okposo scored 22 seconds into the third period for New York, which suffered its third loss in four games.