Brock Nelson scored in regulation and got the only goal in a five-round shootout to give the Islanders a 3-2 win over the Flyers on Thursday night at Nassau Coliseum.
Jordan Eberle also scored and Ilya Sorokin made 25 saves as the Islanders won their fourth straight and moved into first place alone in the East Division after the Capitals lost to the Bruins. The Islanders also improved to 17-1-2 at Nassau Coliseum. They are the only team in the league with one regulation loss on home ice.
Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Jakub Voracek scored for Philadelphia, which has lost three of four. Carter Hart made 21 saves.
After a scoreless four rounds in the shootout, Nelson fired a snap shot past the blocker of Hart.
“I didn’t want to try and do anything too fancy,” Nelson said. “I just wanted to get a shot, and it beat him.”
Brock Nelson scores the game-winning shootout goal on Carter Hart to lead the Islanders to a 3-2 win over the Flyers. Getty ImagesSorokin made impressive stops on Sean Couturier, Nolan Patrick, Claude Giroux and Travis Konecny in the shootout before denying Joel Farabee to seal the victory. The Russian rookie is 7-0-0 at home and 10-3-1 overall.
Voracek knotted the score at 2-2 early in the second period with his seventh of the season. The Czech winger beat Sorokin with a wrist shot on the blocker side.
The Islanders controlled the game out of the gate and grabbed a two-goal lead after scoring twice within 63 seconds midway through the first period.
Nelson opened the scoring with his team-leading 15th goal at 6:10 of the first period. Defenseman Ryan Pulock skated into the offensive zone, circled the net and found Nelson near the right faceoff circle.
Eberle doubled the Islanders’ advantage after burying a feed from Leo Komarov. Mathew Barzal’s aggressive forecheck forced a turnover in Philadelphia’s defensive zone, and the Islanders took advantage.
Aube-Kubel cut the Flyers’ deficit in half with a long-distance shot that caught Sorokin off guard at 13:53 of the first period.
The Islanders missed an opportunity to go ahead by three goals when Flyers defenseman Samuel Morin received a major penalty for boarding and was ejected 14 seconds after Eberle’s goal. But the Islanders generated just three shots on the five-minute power play.
Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac, acquired from the Devils on Wednesday in exchange for a 2021 first-round draft pick, a conditional fourth-round pick in 2022 and two prospects, made their Islanders debuts.
