A few weeks ago, the Eastern Conference Playoff race seemed as crowded as possible. Only a handful of points separated teams in the last few spots from those at the bottom of the conference. Only two teams had separated themselves at the bottom of the pack, seemingly unlikely to rejoin the fray.
Fast forward a little while and one of those teams is back in the mix. The New York Islanders have re-emerged into the playoff picture since losing to the Philadelphia Flyers 5-3 on Jan. 16. They entered Thursday night with five consecutive wins, including a redemption victory over the Flyers 3-1 on Jan. 24. Even though the Flyers had home ice on their side this time, the Islanders kept up their winning ways, extending their league-leading win streak to six games with a shutdown 3-0 victory.
Game Recap
One of the storylines entering this game was Maxim Tsyplakov’s return against the Flyers after earning a three-game suspension for a high hit on Ryan Poehling on Jan. 18. Tsyplakov was suspended for the initial rematch. Still, the Flyers made it clear they hadn’t forgotten his transgressions. During his first shift, Rodrigo Abols and Garnet Hathaway double-teamed him near the Islanders’ bench. On his second, he was on the business end of a spirited scrap with Scott Laughton, who showed another example of why he is so highly valued inside the Philadelphia dressing room.
But another Flyer took a noteworthy shot up high in the first period Thursday when Adam Pelech drew blood from Travis Konecny with a high stick. Matvei Michkov appeared to give the Flyers a 1-0 lead just before the end of the first half of the penalty, but a slight bump of Ilya Sorokin by Morgan Frost led to a successful challenge that brought the goal back.
Outside of the challenge and the fight, the first period passed by without much action of note. That continued through the first half of the second period, which passed with little excitement despite an early Islanders power play. However, New York broke through two seconds after the official midpoint on a bar-down wrist shot by Simon Holmstrom, his 13th goal of the season. That goal didn’t open up the game much, but the Islanders did strike again before the intermission as Marc Gatcomb took advantage of a Flyers breakdown to score his first NHL goal and extend the lead.
That goal ended the night for Michkov, who was removed from John Tortorella’s rotation. It’s the second time in three games Michkov has played fewer than 10 minutes after he finished at 9:45 on Monday, not playing much in the third period as the Flyers protected a lead. Michkov has already been healthy scratched twice this season, but less publicized is that he’s closing in on his career high in games played. Michkov played 56 games in Russia’s Junior Hockey League (MHL) in 2020-21 plus another 14 games in U18 international play. He played 48 games last season in the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) in a much longer period.
Also not on the ice for the third period was Morgan Frost, who took his last shift just after the Holmstrom goal. While Frost was reportedly sidelined due to injury, there are reports that he and Joel Farabee are part of a trade with the Calgary Flames that would send forwards Andrei Kuzmenko and Jakob Pelletier to the Flyers. Elliotte Friedman was the first to report the trade.
Kyle Palmieri ended all lingering doubt by cruising around Jamie Drysdale and sniping a 4-on-4 goal halfway through the third, securing a convincing 3-0 lead. New York completely shut down everything from there, with not even a late power play producing much offense for Philadelphia. Ilya Sorokin confounded the Flyers all night, stopping all 23 shots to post his third shutout of the season.
The Islanders will look to keep their hot streak going in a difficult back-to-back in the Sunshine State as they face the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday and the Florida Panthers on Sunday. The Flyers head west to face the Colorado Avalanche on Sunday, but right now the focus is on the aforementioned pending trade.
