NEW YORK — The Philadelphia Flyers secured a victory over the New York Islanders with a score of 5-3 on Thursday night. Sean Couturier played a pivotal role in the win, contributing one goal and one assist, while Travis Konecny excelled with three assists. Other scorers for Philadelphia included Morgan Frost, Garnet Hathaway, Cam York, and Noah Cates. Samuel Ersson was solid in goal, making 26 saves as the Flyers achieved their third win in four games.
Joel Farabee made a noteworthy comeback with two assists after sitting out three games as a healthy scratch. For the Islanders, Bo Horvat, Mathew Barzal, and Anders Lee found the back of the net, but despite Ilya Sorokin’s return to the crease—where he stopped 19 shots after missing two games due to illness—the team suffered its second consecutive defeat.
The Islanders’ Barzal brought his team within one goal at 3-2 early in the third period, scoring just 30 seconds into the frame. However, the Flyers responded quickly, with Cam York restoring a two-goal cushion by scoring at 5:16 of the period. Anders Lee added his 20th goal of the season at 17:16 during a power play, but Cates sealed the game with an empty-net goal at 18:48.
The Flyers pulled ahead significantly during the second period, with goals from Frost, Hathaway, and Couturier contributing to a 3-1 lead after Horvat had given the Islanders an early advantage with a power-play goal from a beautiful assist by Brock Nelson at 9:21 in the first.
In terms of player updates, Ryan Poehling had to exit the game due to an upper-body injury after a tough collision with Islanders forward Max Tsyplakov. Although the collision was reviewed, officials concluded that it was not worthy of a penalty.
The Islanders, now 9-11-2 at UBS Arena, are facing challenges at home, starting a seven-game homestand and struggling against playoff contenders in the Eastern Conference.
A critical moment came early in the third period when Islanders defenseman Dennis Cholowski took a costly penalty. This penalty expired just moments before the Flyers scored to widen their lead again. Cholowski was whistled for three penalties throughout the game.
A noteworthy statistic for the match was Horvat’s power-play goal, which ended a long streak of 14 games without scoring on the power play, dating back to December 8.
Looking ahead, the Flyers will wrap up a three-game trip on Saturday against New Jersey, while the Islanders will host the San Jose Sharks that same night.
