PHILADELPHIA — The Islanders’ do-or-die game for their playoff chances featured just about every roller coaster moment imaginable.
Flyers coach John Tortorella removed netminder Ivan Fedotov after the first period so he could make his NHL debut just days after being plucked from Russia.
Bo Horvat, scoring his 30th goal and 500th career point, was ejected after taking a puck in the face, but returned and finished the game.
The game seesawed four more times in 60 minutes of regulation time, and the Flyers finally tied it with 9.6 seconds left in front of a raucous home crowd.
Finally, Brock Nelson scored the game-winning goal in overtime to give the Islanders hope. The Islanders defeated the Flyers 4-3 and returned home three points behind the Capitals, who moved into second place in the wild card thanks to Philadelphia’s loss. point.
“You can’t make it up,” Isles captain Anders Lee said.
That would be an accurate depiction of this pulsating 61:24 of hockey in which the Islanders seemed to succumb in the worst way possible before completing the first steps in exorcising their season-long demons.
After Lee’s tip-in goal 17:54 into the second game gave the Islanders a 3-2 lead, they had to hold on to the lead throughout the third period to get out of Philadelphia with a regulation victory. I had to.
For 19 minutes and 50 seconds, the Islanders defended with manic energy, throwing themselves in front of shots when they could, and when they weren’t, getting great shots from Semyon Varlamov.
Their level of competition and wall play, which has often been lacking lately, was great.
They worked below the hash marks when holding the puck, and Lee in particular took a starring role in this third period, just having to grind.
But the Islanders have sacrificed themselves all year by holding on to the lead, and that’s exactly what they’ve been doing.
In the end, skating five-on-six and not clearing the puck took its toll.
With 9.6 seconds left for a dramatic victory, Morgan Frost hit the rebound of Jamie Drysdale’s point shot to send the game into overtime, opening a Pandora’s box for the Islanders.
“They pull the goaltender. We know they’re going to get a chance, so we have to fight,” Ryan Purock told the Post. “Just a bounce. A bounce. I landed in the right spot, but I couldn’t ride it. It was important to win at the end.”
Nelson beat Fedotov on Kyle Palmieri’s one-timer to send the game into overtime, and the Islanders closed the box shortly after.
“This is a playoff-type game. Playoffs, you can’t get down in the playoffs,” Lee said. “Don’t let things like that change your mindset. This is a hockey game that has its ups and downs. There are mistakes, there are shifts in momentum. Keep your keel constant and keep pushing. It happens.”
Not winning in regulation could be costly down the road, as the Flyers have one point and currently have a four-point lead over the Islanders with two games remaining.
Detroit kept pace by defeating the Lightning and now leads by three points with a game remaining.
However, if they can’t score another point in overtime, the season will be unofficially over.
It was something the islanders knew they had to avoid.
“We were approaching it like it was a do-or-die scenario for us,” Nelson said.
Mathematically this may not have been the case, but in every other respect this was true.
The Flyers knew that, too, and Coach Tortorella allowed his starting pitchers two goals on six shots in the first period, building a 1-0 lead with a goal by Noah Cates 4:57 into the game. He then pulled away from Sam Elson.
Early in the second period, it appeared to be paying off.
Travis Sanheim tied the game in just 43 seconds, and even as the Islanders started tipping the ice, the hulking 6-foot-8 netminder stopped just about everything in sight.
In the end, Lee broke through and stopped Alexander Romanov’s shot from the left point with his stick.
It wasn’t so smooth in the defensive-heavy third, where the Islanders lost 19-3.
“The difference between second and third was we were faster with the puck, we competed better, we put the puck deep and we had easy breakouts,” coach Patrick Roy said. “In the third, for some reason, our level of competition wasn’t as good as the second. We didn’t make good decisions with that pack.
“But listen, what’s important is that we won the game.”
And the Islanders live to see another day in the playoff race.
