April 07, 2015
Brayden Schenn capped a wild final 2 minutes with the winning goal with 2.1 seconds left to lift the Philadelphia Flyers past the New York Islanders 5-4 on Tuesday night.
With a playoff berth at stake, the Islanders wiped out a 4-1 deficit in the third period and nearly sent the game into overtime. Johnny Boychuk scored with 1:44 remaining in the game to make it 4-3 and Anders Lee tied it with 28 seconds to go.
Lee scored earlier in the period to ignite the rally. The Islanders needed a win to clinch an Eastern Conference playoff berth. They can still make it if Pittsburgh wins at Ottawa.
Claude Giroux scored two goals and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Carlo Colaiacovo also had goals.
Jakub Voracek had a pair of assists for the Flyers, keeping him in the hunt for his first career NHL scoring title. scored for the Flyers.
John Tavares also scored for the Islanders in their bid for one final run at a Stanley Cup from Uniondale, New York. They move to Brooklyn's Barclays Center next season.
The Islanders will play their final regular season game at Nassau Coliseum on Saturday. They'd like a few more home games in the playoffs.
Long out of the playoff hunt, the Flyers continued to play their best against teams in the hunt for the Cup. In 32 games since the All-Star break, the Flyers are 11-2-5 against playoff teams and just 3-5-6 against teams out of the race.
Giroux, an All-Star, had two quick goals in the first set up by Voracek and defenseman Mark Streit. Giroux's first was a one-timer on the power-play goal and his second came less than 5 minutes later to give goalie Steve Mason an early cushion. Giroux scored just his second even-strength goal at home of the season.
Streit, a former Islanders captain, hit the 50-point mark and became the first Flyers defenseman to reach that total since the retired Chris Pronger in 2009-10.
"We moved the puck well, we stayed patient, stuck with it and finally got the goal," Streit said. "The second goal ... we took advantage of an odd-man rush with good puck movement and it was a great shot by Giroux."
Giroux remained stuck on two goals and still has not yet scored a hat trick during the regular season. His lone three-goal game came against Pittsburgh in the 2012 playoffs.
Tavares scored his 36th goal of the season on the power-play in the second to make it 2-1. He entered just a point behind Pittsburgh's Sidney Crosby in the scoring race. Voracek was two points behind Crosby.
The Flyers stretched the lead on Bellemare's sixth goal of the season in the second and Colaiacovo's second of the season in the third.
NOTES: Injured Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds laughed watching from the press box during the team's "Wayne Simmonds or Richard Simmons" video feature. ... Tavares reached a career high with 82 points.
