Three reasons the Flyers beat the Islanders

On a night when too many penalties could have led to a Flyers loss, it was an Islanders penalty that led directly to the Flyers winning.

There are many reasons the Flyers were able to squeeze by the Islanders on Sunday. Here are three.

About 30 seconds before Kevin Hayes’ power-play overtime game-winner, the Flyers survived a misplay in their own zone that led to a golden wide-open chance for New York’s Scott Mayfield in the slot. Mayfield, a defenseman, has never scored more than five goals in a season. With no screen, Elliott turned Mayfield’s shot away and the Flyers marched up ice.

The problems started when Claude Giroux lost a faceoff in the offensive zone, then Brian Elliott couldn’t stop an Islanders dump in, then Jean-Gabriel Pageau beat Giroux in a battle along the boards. But Elliott made the key save and Giroux went and set up Hayes for the winning goal, but it just shows how thin the difference between a win and a loss can be. Good thing for the Flyers the Islanders were down a man and that Mayfield is not a sniper.

Connor Bunnaman seems to have taken control of the fourth-line center job, anchoring a nuisance line alongside Michael Raffl and Nicolas Aube-Kubel. They’re not stuffing the stats sheets, but they are giving opponents a hard time.

Alain Vigneault is showing faith in the line, too. He had them out there late on Saturday and Sunday. In his last three games, Bunnaman has won 16 of 24 faceoffs.

A scoring change just before midnight gave James van Riemsdyk the secondary assist on Hayes’ game-winning goal.

Hayes’ original shot glanced off JVR right to Claude Giroux, who dropped it to Hayes. It wasn’t exactly Gretzky to Kurri, but It was enough to give van Riemsdyk his fourth assist on the night — yes, he helped on all four goals. He not only established a career high, but it also curried him some favor where it counts the most.

Mrs. van Riemsdyk, responding to a tweet from NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jordan Hall, begrudgingly said she’d get up with the baby on Monday morning.

Head coach Alain Vigneault raises a lot of eyebrows when he holds players accountable. It should also be noted that he rewards those who are paying attention to detail. Van Riemsdyk is leading the team in scoring and has also upped his game in the other zones. He’s not going to take Sean Couturier’s Selke Trophy, but he is catching the coaching staff’s eye.

The other night, when Vigneault benched Travis Konecny, he moved van Riemsdyk up to play on Hayes’ line.

22: The Flyers have risen from 29th in the league in penalty killing to 22nd thanks to their run of 14 kills in their opponents last 15 attempts. Last season — with Sean Couturier healthy — the Flyers were 11th.

57: Though the Islanders outshot the Flyers, 36-29, the teams were even with 57 shot attempts (SOG + blocked shots + missed shots). The Flyers also held an unfortunate edge in posts hit, 3-1. Hayes hit two, Konecny one.

1:17: The Flyers had a two-man advantage in the first period and had zero shots on goal.

30:05: Ivan Provorov’s ice time. Combine that with the 24:53 he played on Saturday, and Provorov played nearly a full game this weekend.