Philly Sports Jabronis
Report From Philadelphia Flyers
* Claude Giroux recorded his 15th career two-goal game and fourth of this season.
* Mark Streit tied a career high with his three assists, doing so for the seventh time in his career and second time as a Flyer… The last time was one year and one day ago on Apr. 6, 2014 vs. Buffalo… He now has 51 points on the season, making him the Flyers’ first 50-point defenseman since Chris Pronger in 2009-10.
* Jake Voracek recorded two assists and now has 81 points on the season on 22 goals and 59 assists… He is third in scoring in the NHL, remaining two points behind Sidney Crosby and three points behind Jonathan Tavares, who now leads the NHL after his three-point game tonight.
* The Flyers have won their last two games despite being outshot 87-47 total.
GAME RECAP
PHILADELPHIA — Brayden Schenn‘s goal with 2.1 seconds remaining in the third period capped a wild final two minutes to help the Philadelphia Flyers defeat the New York Islanders 5-4 at Wells Fargo Center on Tuesday.
The Islanders (46-28-6) had rallied from a 4-2 deficit with two goals in a 1:16 span with 1:44 remaining to tie the game with 28.0 seconds remaining. But with time running out, Sean Couturier pushed the puck ahead to Schenn along the left-wing boards, and as he got to the left circle he put a shot on net that got past Jaroslav Halak for the winner.
The Islanders needed one point against the Flyers to clinch a spot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, or an Ottawa Senators loss in any fashion to the Pittsburgh Penguins. Ottawa won 4-3 in overtime.
Claude Giroux scored two goals, Jakub Voracek had two assists and Schenn, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Carlo Colaiacovo scored for the Flyers.
Steve Mason made 36 saves for his first win in three games against the Islanders this season. He was 0-0-2 entering Tuesday but had one shutout and had stopped 74 of 76 shots.
Anders Lee had two goals and John Tavares had a goal and two assists. Johnny Boychuk also had a goal for the Islanders. Halak made 22 saves.
New York went 1-for-5 with five shots on goal on the power play against Philadelphia’s 29th-ranked penalty killing unit.
Tavares’ three-point game gave him a career-best 83 points. His previous high was 81 points in 2011-12.
New York was playing without forwards Frans Nielsen, Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck because of undisclosed injuries.
Philadelphia (33-29-18) improved to 4-0-3 in its past seven games. They’ve won three straight against teams currently holding Stanley Cup Playoff positions; in 31 games since the All-Star break they’re 11-2-5 against teams in playoff positions, 3-5-6 against teams out of the playoff race.
The Islanders tied the game on Lee’s second goal of the game and 25th of the season with 28.0 seconds remaining. Tavares beat Giroux on a faceoff on the right side of the Flyers zone and got the puck to Lee, who deked and scored.
That goal came after Tavares helped get New York within 4-3 at 18:16 of the third.
Philadelphia iced the puck and on the ensuing faceoff, Tavares beat Bellemare and on one knee got the puck back to Boychuk at the point, and his hard, off-balance shot through traffic got past Mason.
The Islanders got within 4-2 on Lee’s first goal at 8:21 of the third period. Mason stopped Josh Bailey’s low shot from the goal line near the wall on the left side of the Flyers’ zone, but he kicked the rebound into the middle of the ice, and Lee one-timed the rebound past Mason for his 24th of the season.
Colaiacovo’s goal at 2:45 of the third gave Philadelphia a 4-1 lead. Zac Rinaldo, skating toward the boards on the right side, made a no-look backhand pass into the slot to Colaiacovo, who one-timed it past Halak for his second goal of the season.
Bellemare gave the Flyers a 3-1 lead at 10:46 of the second period with his sixth goal of the season. He stepped behind Islanders forward Kyle Okposo to get to the front of the net and one-time Vincent Lecavalier‘s centering pass past Halak.
“We played down in the corner, I got the puck up and I shot it,” Bellemare said. “Vandy [Chris VandeVelde] made a great play to Vinny [Lecavalier] and then I saw Vinny get the puck. I skated toward the net as hard as I could and they gave me a tap-in there. It was an open net.”
The Islanders cut the deficit to 2-1 on Tavares’ power-play goal. Ryan Strome got the puck on the right side of the Flyers zone and sent a low shot on net that Tavares, who was open in front of the net, redirected past Mason at 9:34 of the second.
Giroux’s 25th goal of the season made it 2-0 at 17:44 of the first. He started the play by tipping a puck out of the Philadelphia zone to Jakub Voracek. Mark Streit, skating on the left side of the New York zone, found Giroux trailing the play, and the Philadelphia captain beat Halak past his glove with a wrist shot from the right hashmarks.
The Flyers took a 1-0 lead on Giroux’s power-play goal at 12:54. After getting one shot on goal during a 5-on-3 power play, the Flyers held possession during a 5-on-4 advantage in the Islanders end. Streit got the puck up high in the Islanders zone and sent it to Giroux in the left circle, and his one-timer beat Halak.
“The first goal we had a long 5-on-3 and just tried to get pucks to the net,” Giroux said. “We had a couple of good chances before I scored and the second goal [Michael] Raffl did a good job going to the net and opening up the lane and I just tried to hit the net.”
