The power play was expiring, and the Islanders had nothing to show for it.
After a strong first minute to the power play, a few miscues had prevented them from doing much, and the Flyers had gotten a rush the other way. But as Morgan Frost’s penalty expired, Brock Nelson rushed up the ice and fed a behind-the-back pass to Anthony Beauvillier, who found Zach Parise. And Parise let loose a shot that rattled the back of the net at 11:51 of the third period. The goal was the capper on a much-needed 4-3 victory for the Islanders at UBS Arena on Tuesday night.
They didn’t let this one out of their grasp and moved back above .500 with the win.
The game looked to be in danger after Gerry Mayhew’s wrist shot at 1:50 of the third period tied the score at three. But Parise’s second goal in as many games ensured there was nothing to worry about, and that the Islanders’ comeback from a 2-0 deficit hadn’t been for naught.
“It feels great to contribute,” Parise said. “Most importantly, we got the two points that we really needed to get for us to keep pulling. And a good response from a couple early goals and a couple unfortunate bounces.”
At 13:37 of the first period, Noah Dobson got the Islanders on the scoreboard less than a minute after Philadelphia’s Justin Braun rang a shot off the post and in to give his team a 2-0 lead. Dobson’s shot from the right point got through a screen from Oliver Wahlstrom to breathe some badly needed energy back into the crowd on a sleepy night.
By the end of the first period, not only was an experiment in breaking up Anders Lee and Mathew Barzal over, but also the two had combined for a goal. Barzal fed Lee on a breakaway to tie the score at two at 18:15 of the first.
After an opening period that started with an error by goaltender Ilya Sorokin that led to Claude Giroux’s goal 57 seconds in, the Islanders were happy to go back to their dressing room even.
“When the game starts like that with a couple bounces that go against us like that, you gotta stick with it, settle in and I think we did exactly that,” Lee said. “Dobber got the boys going and then Barzy made a great play over to me to finish the period.”
It didn’t take long from there — just 5:42 into the second — before they were in the lead. Barzal notched his second point of the night, scoring on the power play off Parise’s pass from the right post to make it 3-2.
The Flyers were lucky the lead didn’t grow. The Islanders, buoyed by a fourth line that has found its forechecking energy, and finally rolling all four of their forward lines, put forth a strong 20 minutes of zone time and offensive chances.
The only snag was a rocky performance from Sorokin, who gave up three goals on 17 shots, including a bad miscue on Giroux’s opener, and allowed a number of dangerous rebounds.
As it turned out, the lineup answer that finally worked for the Islanders, who had been rotating through forward options the last few games, was what they originally had: Lee and Barzal with Josh Bailey; Nelson with Beauvillier and Kieffer Bellows; Jean-Gabriel Pageau centering Wahlstrom and Parise; and the Identity Line.
“I think all four of our lines had a great night up and down the lineup,” Lee said. “It was a great game.”
After their third win over the Flyers in just over a week, the Islanders (15-14-6) are back above .500 and can focus squarely on finishing the first half of the season strong. The home schedule will be more than halfway completed next week after the Islanders’ COVID-addled start resulted in a failure to take full advantage of a two-month stretch in which they played just four road games.
But that’s all in the past, and the focus is now on what’s ahead. That means the Islanders must take advantage of every opportunity in front of them as they try to fight their way back into the playoff conversation.
On Tuesday, they did just that.
“One thing I take from that game is no panic. We stayed with it,” head coach Barry Trotz said. “We got the result that we wanted.”