Flyers’ tough luck continues, lose to Isles in OT as goalie Ilya Sorokin stands tall
The Flyers rebounded and played one of their best games of the season. They still lost.
For the enigmatic Flyers, who allowed a total of 18 goals in their previous three games, it’s been a wacky journey lately as they try to stay in the East Division playoff race.
Get blown out by the Rangers, 9-0, but rebound to win their next game.
Get blown out by the Islanders, 6-1, but rebound and play one of their best games of the season Monday.
Even if it was a loss.
Anthony Beauvillier scored on a wraparound with 1 minute, 19 seconds left in overtime to give the Islanders a 2-1 win at the Wells Fargo Center.
“An instinct play,” Beauvillier said after putting his shot off goalie Brian Elliott’s skate.
Beauvillier scored after taking a pass from J.G. Pageau, a sequence that started when Joel Farabee and Shayne Gostisbehere couldn’t connect on a pass in their defensive zone.
The Flyers did not resemble the team that was blasted by the Islanders two nights earlier. They won board battles, controlled the neutral zone, and generated odd-man rushes. They also limited their turnovers and played with much more urgency.
But they couldn’t close the deal.
“It was a good game to build on, even if it was a tough result,” said center Sean Couturier, who won 12 of 13 faceoffs after missing the previous game because of a hip flexor.
The Flyers are now 3-1-1 against the Islanders this season. They are two points behind Boston for the East’s fourth and final playoff spot. Boston has two games in hand.
Claude Giroux liked his team’s overall performance. “But at this time of the year, against a team we are chasing, the results are all that matters,” he said. “In saying that, there’s a lot of positives to take from tonight.”
The Islanders tied the score at 1-1 as Oliver Wahlstrom scored on a wild scramble in front of goalie Brian Elliott with 15:54 left in regulation. Elliott appeared to have the puck covered for a split second, but it squirted loose and Wahlstrom capitalized.
Elliott, who had been pulled from his previous two starts, made a big stop on Leo Komarov from in close with a little over five minutes left in regulation.
With 1:49 to go, the Flyers went on a power play, and a diving Ilya Sorokin made a great glove save on a left-circle shot by Giroux that deflected off defenseman Scott Mayfield, changed speeds, and nearly got into the net.
The Flyers dominated in shots, 37-15, in regulation, but Sorokin stood tall. New York had all four OT shots.
The Flyers failed to connect on three two-on-ones in the first half of the game, but at least they were creating opportunities and keeping the Isles on their collective heels.
“We should have scored more than one; we had some outnumber situations and we didn’t quite execute,” coach Alain Vigneault said. “At the end of the night, their goaltender was the difference.”
With 7:57 left in the second, the Flyers took a 1-0 lead on Oskar Lindblom’s third goal in the last three games. Giroux did the heavy lifting, circling behind the net and coming out front and throwing a shot that deflected off Lindblom’s skate and past Sorokin.
New York had few quality chances in the game.
“When everybody’s doing their job, and either taking away shooting lanes or moving guys out front so you can see the puck, it’s definitely a positive,” Elliott said. “It was a really good game in a lot of aspects from our team. It shows us how we need to play on a nightly basis.”
The Flyers controlled the opening period, and only Sorokin’s brilliant goaltending kept the game scoreless. Sorokin, 25, has had great success in Russia’s KHL and is having a strong rookie NHL season. He collected his eighth straight win Monday.
Sorokin robbed Nolan Patrick twice from point-blank range and denied Travis Konecny on the doorstep as the Flyers held a 12-4 shots advantage in the opening period.
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On a two-on-one, Patrick took a great feed from Nic Aube-Kubel, but Sorokin wouldn’t bite on his move and he made a pad save with 1:11 left in the first.
The Flyers, who host the Devils on Tuesday, dominated all phases of the first period, including hits (12-2) and faceoffs (12-4), and they had much more structure and a better forecheck than in recent games.
Vigneault inserted Gostisbehere into the lineup, benched Nate Prosser, and changed all three defensive pairings from the units that were together in Saturday’s five-goal defeat at Nassau Coliseum. Gostisbehere was paired with Ivan Provorov on the top unit, Travis Sanheim was with Justin Braun, and Erik Gustafsson was with Phil Myers.
The defense tightened its gaps considerably, and the Flyers got better play from their backchecking forwards. Entering the third period, they had a 26-10 shots domination and were trying to finish one of their best 60-minute efforts of the season.
In their first 11 March games, the Flyers had been outscored by 19 goals over the first two periods, so taking a 1-0 lead into the third period was a welcome change. But the Islanders would not go away, and they now have outscored the Flyers in the third period, 8-1, in the teams’ five meetings this season.