FINAL | Round 2 – Game 1 | Monday, August 24, 2020

Islanders Lead Series 1-0

Flyers Lineup

Claude Giroux – Sean Couturier – Jakub Voracek

Scott Laughton – Kevin Hayes – Travis Konecny

Joel Farabee – Derek Grant – Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Michael Rafflo – Nate Thompson – Tyler Pitlick

Ivan Provorov – Matt Niskanen

Travis Sanheim – Philippe Myers

Shayne Gostisbehere – Justin Braun

Carter Hart – Brian Elliott

Andy Welinski, Andy Andreoff, Morgan Frost, Egor Zamula, Mark Friedman, Connor Bunnaman, Alex Lyon, Kirill Ustimenko, Oskar Lindblom, Robert Hagg, James van Riemsdyk

None

Game Report

After a hard-fought, grinding series against the Montreal Canadiens, the Flyers had a couple of days to regroup and focus on a new adversary: the New York Islanders. It’s been more than 20 years since these two teams met in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the series promises to be intense.

In game-day media availability, Islanders forward Matt Martin said that their goal was to “…get to playing our game first,” and that’s exactly what the Islanders did. Philadelphia was completely on their heels for the opening 20 minutes, with New York outshooting Philadelphia 15-4 in the frame. Carter Hart had to be sharp, making save after save as his team was hemmed into their own zone for minutes on end. Hart even had a highlight-reel glove save from his stomach that had viewers thrilled.

The Flyers did have a few good opportunities in the period: Kevin Hayes had yet another breakaway, but Semyon Varlamov stopped his shot. Later in the period, Travis Konecny fired the puck into what would have been a wide-open net, but Andy Greene made an acrobatic move to stop the puck. Greene also had the only goal in the period, a blast from the blue line that got through traffic.

The second period was a complete turnaround for the Flyers. They came out and controlled practically every inch of ice. In the carryover Islanders power play from the first period, Philly didn’t allow a single shot on net. Moreover, New York was held without a shot for the first eight minutes and change in the period, with the Flyers peppering Varlamov in the offensive zone. And although he wasn’t tested as often in the middle frame, Hart maintained solid positioning and puck tracking throughout the second period and made some very important saves to keep his team within one.

Unfortunately, the Flyers weren’t able to sustain that kind of play throughout the third period, and the Islanders took full advantage. The period began with more tight checking and some Philadelphia chances, but after a board battle behind the net ended with Jean-Gabriel Pageau all alone in the slot to put the puck past Hart, the Flyers seemed to deflate a bit.

Then, on a well-coordinated three-on-two rush, Jordan Eberle passed the puck up to Mathew Barzal who then quickly made a centering pass back to Anders Lee who wasted no time burying the puck.

Alain Vigneault tried to shake things up when he quietly pulled Hart for an extra attacker while there was still more than seven minutes left in the period, but that turned disastrous when the Islanders rimmed the puck around the boards and it went sailing into the empty net seconds later.

The Flyers couldn’t get solid footing in this one, but their messaging after the game seemed to be all focused on Wednesday’s afternoon matchup, where they look to continue their streak of not losing back-to-back games since early January.

Plus / Minus

▲  Ivan Provorov, Travis Konecny

▼  Nate Thompson, Shayne Gostisbehere