Islanders fall to Flyers in second straight chippy matchup
Philadelphia Flyers' Rasmus Ristolainen, left, wrestles with New York Islanders' Matt Martin during the third period of an NHL hockey game, Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022, in Philadelphia. Credit: AP/Matt Slocum
PHILADELPHIA — It eventually turned from a spillover fight night into a hockey game. Just not a very productive one for the Islanders.
The Islanders had their four-game winning streak snapped in a 3-1 loss to the Flyers — who broke their 10-game winless streak — on Tuesday night at Wells Fargo Center.
“A tough game, really,” said Matt Martin, who needed just seven seconds to get into his 100th career fight. “Not a lot of flow to it. They played hard and played well and we’ve got to be better at the end of the day.”
It concluded the Islanders’ lone home-and-home series of the season and the opener — a 5-2 Islanders’ win at UBS Arena on Saturday night — was full of bad feelings after several third-period scrums as the teams combined for 46 penalty minutes in the final period. Defenseman Alexander Romanov’s clean check on Kevin Hayes sparked Saturday’s hostilities.
The teams combined for 36 penalty minutes on Tuesday with Martin having pregame chats during warmups with both Zack MacEwen and Nicolas Deslauriers, who had been tossed from Saturday’s game.
“We just wanted to answer with a little more grit,” said Ross Johnston, who fought Deslauriers just one second after Martin jumped over the boards after the opening faceoff to replace Anders Lee and drop the gloves with MacEwen. “There was really no message. Just come in and play your game and whatever happens, happens. We knew they were going to bring it tonight.”
Johnston, playing just his fifth game of the season, logged 9:01 of ice time. The Islanders played most of the game shorthanded after right wing Cal Clutterbuck exited with an unspecified issue at 15:59 of the first period. Josh Bailey was a late scratch with an upper-body injury after taking warmups.
Ilya Sorokin, who entered the game with a 7-1-1 record, a 1.72 goals-against average and a .938 save percentage with one shutout in nine career games against the Flyers, made 30 saves to keep the Islanders (15-9-0) within striking distance after falling behind 2-1 in the first period.
“They played a good game and I thought we weren’t as sharp as we needed to be, especially in the second [period],” said defenseman Noah Dobson, who gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead on a five-on-three power play goal at 3:12 of the first period. “In the neutral zone, we weren’t getting pucks in and I thought we struggled breaking pucks out. It was hard to get some offensive-zone time.”
Carter Hart stopped 23 shots as the Flyers (8-10-5) won for the first time since Nov. 8. That included two saves on the last of the Islanders’ four power plays after Owen Tippett was called for high sticking Lee at 14:13 of the third period. He got help from defenseman Nick Seeler, who got to the blue paint to block Anthony Beauvillier’s open look at 6:12 of the third period.
The Flyers got Scott Laughton back in the lineup after he was activated off injured reserve because of an upper-body issue. But they still have four regulars on IR, defenseman Ryan Ellis on long-term injured reserve and defenseman Tony DeAngelo (lower body) was out after getting roughed up in his fight with Wahlstrom at 16:44 of the third period on Saturday.
Defenseman Travis Sanheim’s shorthanded goal tied it at 1-1 just one minute, 25 seconds after Dobson’s score.
“It’s frustrating, for sure,” Dobson said. “I think we can’t let a shorthanded goal that early affect the rest of the game.”
Hayes gave the Flyers a 2-1 lead at 9:45 of the first period after Lukas Sedlak won an offensive-zone faceoff and he also added an empty-netter.
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Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
