Flyers not happy Samuel Morin got thrown out for this hit (with video clips)

Samuel Morin’s size is a major part of his game, but perhaps it’s starting to work against him.

What appeared to be a routine shove by Morin of Islanders’ forward Casey Cizikas along the boards was ruled a dangerous enough play that referee Dean Morton ejected the 6-foot-7, 200-pound defenseman midway through the first period.

Cizikas (5-11, 195) banged face-first into the boards and briefly laid on the ice as Morton assessed Morin a 5-minute boarding penalty and a game misconduct.

Morin was unavailable for comment following the game, but his teammates and coach seemed surprised at the severity of the penalty.

“I don’t agree with the call,” Alain Vigneault said twice.

“He was vulnerable,” Islanders coach Barry Trotz countered. “It was the right call. No question.”

With 2 minutes, 37 seconds left in the third period, Travis Sanheim was hit from behind by New York’s Jean-Gabriel Pageau. No penalty was called.

“I had some words for the official after that play,” Sanheim said. “Very similar play [to Morin’s]. The difference is one’s in the first period, one’s late in the third, so I guess they decided not to call it.”

Morin, a 2013 first-round pick who has overcome two major knee injuries to finally become a regular, was playing in his 21st NHL game. Thursday was his 12th game this season. He’s had two fights and incurred a $3,000 fine for unsportsmanlike conduct for pulling the hair of the Rangers’ Brendan Lemieux during a bout two weeks ago.

» READ MORE: Flyers come up short in 3-2 loss in shootout to Islanders

His ejection on Thursday came 14 seconds after the Flyers had just gotten into a 2-nothing hole.

Last month, when the Flyers were getting regularly blown out, having to kill a 5-minute major right after giving up two goals in 63 seconds would have led to an avalanche by the opponents. But that wasn’t the case here.

Cizikas returned during the power play, but the shorthanded Flyers had the better of the scoring chances with two two-on-ones and a breakaway by Michael Raffl.

Goalie Carter Hart and the Flyers, in fact, shut out the Islanders for the final 52-plus minutes using five defensemen. In all, they killed off 8 minutes, 55 seconds of power-play time. Not bad for a team that came into the night 30th in the league in that category.

“That 5-minute kill was a game-changer,” said Hart, who stopped the Islanders’ final 20 shots plus four more in the shootout before Brock Nelson beat him for the game-winner. “It really shifted the momentum for us.”

The Flyers only got one point as a result of losing 3-2 in a shootout, and they lost ground in the standings, thanks to Boston’s win over Washington. There are no moral victories when you are six points out of a playoff spot with 17 games left, but there can be encouragement.

» READ MORE: Hagg in, Myers out as Vigneault adjusts lineup

This team was a disaster in March and its probably going to run out of time. But the players aren’t quitting.

“We’re coming out and we’re playing hard, so I think we’re going to get rewarded,” Hart said. “You keep coming. Coming to work hard and stick to the process. I know sometimes it can be tough, but you’ve just got to bear down.”