The Philadelphia Flyers secured a 4-3 shootout victory against the New York Islanders at UBS Arena on Black Friday. The Flyers initially built a 3-0 lead in regulation, but the Islanders responded with three goals to tie the game by the end of the second period.
Tyson Foerster and Sean Couturier scored first-period goals for Philadelphia, just 20 seconds apart. Foerster’s goal was unassisted after a turnover, and Couturier followed with another unassisted shot from the left circle. Early in the second period, Trevor Zegras added a power play goal for his eighth of the season, assisted by Emil Andrae and Matvei Michkov.
The Islanders answered with goals from Earl Heineman, Matthew Schaefer, and Anders Lee to even the score at 3-3 before overtime. In net, Samuel Ersson made 28 saves on 31 shots through regulation and overtime for Philadelphia and stopped two out of three attempts in the shootout. David Rittich recorded 18 saves on 21 shots for New York and stopped one of three shootout attempts.
In the shootout round, Trevor Zegras scored in the first round while Travis Konecny sealed the win with a third-round goal. Simon Holmstrom was successful for New York in round two.
Special teams played a significant role as Philadelphia went one-for-two on power plays and killed four out of five penalties. “Ersson stepped up huge for the Flyers in overtime and especially in the shootout. He deserved the win.”
Travis Konecny’s final shootout goal came against his cousin Bo Horvat, who had been strong on faceoffs throughout but was denied on his last attempt.
Philadelphia’s starting lineup included Zegras, Christian Dvorak, Owen Tippett; Foerster, Noah Cates, Konecny; Michkov, Couturier, Bobby Brink; Nikita Grebenkin, Rodrigo Abols, Garnet Hathaway; with defensive pairings Cam York-Travis Sanheim; Nick Seeler-Jamie Drysdale; Emil Andrae-Noah Juulsen; Samuel Ersson started in goal.
The Flyers’ next challenge will be maintaining leads as they look to build consistency following this narrow win over their division rivals.
