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The New York Islanders split their back-to-back set, defeating the Dallas Stars yesterday, then falling to the Philadelphia Flyers today.
4-2 WIN OVER STARS ON SATURDAY
After a scoreless opening frame, Ryan Pulock opened the scoring in the second period with a slapshot through traffic. However, the Stars responded late in the frame, as Denis Gurianov took a pass on a rush and beat Semyon Varlamov, tying the game.
In the third period though, Brock Nelson scored early, with his shot bouncing off Jake Oettinger and in. Then under two minutes later, Nelson struck again off a pass from Anthony Beauvillier, making it a 3-1 game. Jacob Peterson brought the Stars back to within a goal later and Dallas threw 17 shots at Varlamov in the frame overall, but the Islanders held on and Nelson added an empty net goal later for a hat trick to secure an Islanders win.
2-1 LOSS TO FLYERS TODAY
Despite being outshot 13-6 in the first period, the Islanders opened the scoring with about seven minutes to go in the frame, as Casey Cizikas put a slapshot off Patrick Brown and in.
The Flyers tied the game in the second period though, after Sebastian Aho turned the puck over and it got to Kevin Hayes, who beat Ilya Sorokin. Then later, Philadelphia capitalized on a power play, with Hayes scoring his second goal of the game from a similar spot to put the Flyers up 2-1 after 40 minutes.
Needing to generate some chances to try to even the game, the Islanders came out pretty flat in the third period. They were outshot and the only reason the Flyers didn’t extend their lead was due to Ilya Sorokin, but New York still fell 2-1.
With the win over Dallas, the Islanders managed to get the victory despite being outshot 39-25 but against the Flyers, it was a pretty disappointing game. New York really struggled to get anything going offensively for long stretches of time and generally gave up the better chances.
We saw again that one part of Mathew Barzal’s game that’s preventing him from really taking another step offensively is his unwillingness to shoot. Far too often, he’s in a great spot on a rush but doesn’t even think about taking a shot and ends up passing off the puck for a lower percentage play. He has good accuracy on his shot when he uses it, he just needs to have more confidence in it.
Sorokin was great again for the Islanders against the Flyers - there’s still about 21 hours until the trade deadline so maybe we will see something happen, but Sorokin’s performance this season just begs the question as to why New York wouldn’t trade Semyon Varlamov. He can bring back a really solid return and with the Islanders outside the playoff picture anyways, they may be wasting an opportunity here.
On that note, we’ll see if anything’s done before the deadline. New York has several pending unrestricted free agents who could bring back mid-round draft picks and neither Cal Clutterbuck or Andy Greene were in the lineup today (if that means anything).
New York’s next game comes on Tuesday against the Ottawa Senators.
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OTHER ARTICLES FROM MARCH
Islanders end road trip with loss to Avalanche
Islanders lose to Canucks in first game of homestand
Islanders hang on for 2-1 win over Blues
Islanders claim Austin Czarnik off waivers from Kraken
Islanders collapse against Avalanche, late comeback falls short
Islanders win both games of back-to-back vs. Blue Jackets and Jets
Islanders wrap up homestand with win over Ducks
Islanders come up short against Capitals in shootout
Islanders pick up narrow 2-1 win over Rangers 
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