There is still much work to be done by the Flyers and their hopes for the playoffs but at least they hold a bit of destiny in their own hands.<\/p>\n
By defeating the Islanders, 4-1, on Friday night at UBS Arena in Elmont, N.Y., the Flyers pulled within a point of New York with the all-important game in hand for the last postseason spot.<\/p>\n
Philadelphia goaltender Dan Vladar bounced back from a lopsided loss in Washington (he gave up five goals) on Tuesday to put together one of his best efforts of the season.<\/p>\n
Vladar was particularly sharp when the Islanders pulled goaltender Ilya Sorokin with more than eight minutes left in the game. New York came with everything but Vladar stood tall.<\/p>\n
What made the difference?<\/p>\n
\u201cJust being ready,\u201d Vladar said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t able to in Washington. Just try to learn from that game. The guys played an unbelievable game today.\u201d<\/p>\n
This was the tail end of a back-to-back. The Flyers are now 7-5-1 in second games of these situations, including five in a row.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlaying for each other, care about each other,\u201d Vladar said. \u201cWe just want to extend our season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coach Rick Tocchet knew how big this game was and it seemed like just about every player stepped up his game.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of resilience from our team,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cI just loved the energy. It\u2019s a tough building to come in. \u2026 [The Islanders] had a couple days rest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Down three goals with eight minutes to play, New York decided to pull the goalie. The Flyers didn\u2019t score but neither did the Islanders.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we handled the pressure pretty good,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cWe needed the bench. Everyone contributed tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Matvei Michkov ended a 12-game goal slump at 2:52 of the second for a 3-0 lead. Michkov chased down a puck behind the New York net, then backhanded a shot off goalie Ilya Sorokin and across the line.<\/p>\n
The Islanders came back for a goal at 15:37. That continued the Flyers\u2019 string of no shutouts to 115 games. That\u2019s the second longest streak in team history, trailing on the 142-gamer in 1988-90.<\/p>\n
It was all Philadelphia in the first period as the Flyers raced to a 2-0 lead and completely bottled up New York\u2019s offense.<\/p>\n
How bottled? The Islanders couldn\u2019t get a shot on net until the 13:30 mark and finished the 20 minutes of action with only two shots.<\/p>\n
The Flyers scored twice in a span of 1:07.<\/p>\n
First, Owen Tippett connected at 13:54 for his 28th goal of the season, tying a career high.<\/p>\n
Then Alex Bump, back in the lineup after sitting out two games, went to work. Bump\u2019s rising shot from the bottom of the left circle eluded Sorokin.<\/p>\n
Tippett liked the way his team responded after losing a pair.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust our energy,\u201d he said in a televised first intermission interview. \u201cWe knew it was going to be tough coming in here, especially this time of year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having rookie Porter Martone and recently mended Tyson Foerster helped, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think anyone who comes in right now. They add energy,\u201d Tippett said. \u201cThey\u2019ve really given us a boost in there. They\u2019ve been great so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Flyers finished with a 12-2 shot advantage for the opening frame.<\/p>\n
Flyers captain Sean Couturier said in a second intermission interview his team was doing a good job controlling play. His own line with Luke Glendening and Garnet Hathaway was doing its part.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust being responsible defensively,\u201d he said. \u201cOn the forecheck create some energy. As a line I think we\u2019re pretty structured. We creating turnovers, getting chances. Have to maintain that pressure all night long.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guarded outlook<\/p>\n
Entering Friday night\u2019s game, Tocchet said the Flyers had to be ready for a challenging game against the Islanders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve got some gamebreakers,\u201d Tocchet said after Thursday night\u2019s 4-2 home loss to Detroit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a certain time to go and a certain time you have to play smart. So we have to learn from that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coming off those two straight losses, the Flyers looked to get back on the winning track on the road, where they had a franchise record-tying eight straight wins prior to a 6-4 loss in Washington on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had a good record,\u201d Tocchet said. \u201cThat\u2019s a positive, we can draw on that. Think about the positives but also the negative part of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Short shots<\/p>\n
The Flyers head home to play a Sunday afternoon game against the Boston Bruins at Xfinity Mobile Arena. \u2026 Tippett entered Friday night\u2019s road game with seven goals in his last seven games away from home. \u2026 Travis Sanheim\u2019s third period goal was his 10th of the season, tying career high. \u2026 Flyers take three out of four from the Islanders this season.<\/p>\n
Wayne Fish is a freelance writer. Follow his coverage at www.flyingfishhockey.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There is still much work to be done by the Flyers and their hopes for the playoffs but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5112],"tags":[1468,5,4,1467,56,5205,43,5095],"class_list":{"0":"post-539770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-flyers","8":"tag-flyers","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-philadelphia-flyers","13":"tag-philadelphiaflyers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-top-stories-tmc"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116344632648497598","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}