Preview: Flyers @ Islanders
Winners of five straight games, the Philadelphia Flyers (10-7-1) are in Elmont, NY, on Wednesday to play the New York Islanders (6-6-5). Game time at UBS Arena is 7:30 p.m. ET.
Both teams have a quirky schedule this week, as they'll rematch in New York on Saturday evening. In the meantime, come Friday, the Flyers have a home matinee against the New York Rangers and the Islanders are in Ontario to play the Ottawa Senators before returning to Elmont for Saturday's rematch.
The Flyers enter this game coming off a 5-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday. Joel Farabee (7th goal of the season), Bobby Brink (PPG, 4th), Ryan Poehling (SHG, 2nd) and Cam York (long-distance ENG, 2nd) scored for the Flyers. Samuel Ersson was quietly solid in stopping 20 of 22 shots for the win. The Flyers blocked 18 shots for the game, giving the team a combined 72 blocks over its last three games.
The Islanders halted a seven-game winless streak on Saturday as they concluded a four-game western road trip (1-1-2) with a 5-4 shootout win against Calgary. Ilya Sorokin made 35 regulation and overtime saves for New York. Brock Nelson notched a goal and an assist. Hudson Fasching (first goal of the season), Kyle Palmieri and Mathew Barzal tallied once apiece. Oliver Wahlstrom netted the shootout winner.
Philadelphia is expected to have two lineup changes on Wednesday. Carter Hart (6-3-0, 2.40 GAA, ,919 save percentage, one shutout) will return to the net after being rested on Sunday. On the blueline, after missing a month with an upper-body injury, Marc Staal is likely to return to play. Louie Belpedio will exit if Staal plays. Up front, Tortorella is expected to use the same lineup he went with on Sunday, when Brink returned following a three-game stint as a healthy scratch. Morgan Frost is expected to be a healthy scratch for the ninth time in 19 games.
For a more in-depth game preview, see today's
Five Things on PhiladelphiaFlyers.com. Projected lineups, subject to change, are listed below:
FLYERS
71 Tyson Foerster - 14 Sean Couturier - 11 Travis Konecny
74 Owen Tippett - 21 Scott Laughton - 89 Cam Atkinson
86 Joel Farabee - 25 Ryan Poehling - 10 Bobby Brink
44 Nic Deslauriers - 27 Noah Cates - 19 Garnet Hathaway
8 Cam York - 6 Travis Sanheim
24 Nick Seeler - 26 Sean Walker
18 Marc Staal - 5 Egor Zamula
79 Carter Hart
[33 Samuel Ersson]
ISLANDERS
10 Simon Holmström - 14 Bo Horvat - 13 Mathew Barzal
18 Pierre Engvall – 29 Brock Nelson – 21 Kyle Palmieri
27 Anders Lee – 44 J.G. Pageau – 26 Oliver Wahlstrom
20 Hudson Fasching – 53 Casey Cizikas – 15 Cal Clutterbuck
3 Adam Pelech – 8 Noah Dobson
28 Alex Romanov – 6 Ryan Pulock
25 Sebastian Aho – 24 Scott Mayfield
30 Ilya Sororkin
40 Semyon Varlamov
**********
Phantoms Top Marlies, 2-1, Sweep Canada Road Trip
The Lehigh Valley Phantoms (8-6-2) wrapped up a very successful road trip to Canada on Tuesday with a 2-1 victory over the Toronto Marlies (8-5-2). With the entire NHL idle on Tuesday evening, the Phantoms vs. Marlies game was nationally televised on NHL Network.
Cal Petersen stopped 24 of 25 shots to earn the win in net for the Phantoms. The game was score midway through regulation until the Phantoms top goal scorer, Olle Lycksell, potted his 11th tally off the season off a nice feed from the reigning AHL Player of the Week, Tanner Laczynski (10th assist, 14th point). Cooper Marody earned the secondary assist.
In the third period, at the 11:47 mark, Phantoms captain Garrett Wilson (4th) scored what proved to be a vital insurance goal. Defenseman Victor Mete sprung Wilson and Rhett Gardner on a 2-on-1 counterttacker. With Gardner going to the net, puck carrier Wilson elected to shoot from the right circle and found the target. Mete drew the lone assist. In a losing cause, Marlies goalie Dennis Hildeby stopped 32 of 34 shots by Lehigh Valley.
Several minutes later, former Flyers/Phantoms winger Kieffer Bellows (6th goal of the season) broke up Petersen's shutout bid with 5:21 remaining in the third period. The Marlies were unable to find an equalizer thereafter. The Phantoms did a stellar job on a late-game penalty kill after Ethan Samson was sent to the penalty box (for the second time in the final stanza) on a slashing penalty at 16:26.
The Phantoms went 6-for-6 on the penalty kill for the game. Lehigh Valley was 0-for-2 on the power play. There was one fight in the game, as Jordy Bellerive dropped the gloves with Toronto's Matteo Pietrniero in the first period.
With the victory, the Phantoms swept their three-game road trip to Canada to play North Division teams Laval (3-2) and Belleville (8-1) before completing the trip with Tuesday's win in Toronto. The Phantoms return home after U.S. Thanksgiving to host the Providence Bruins on Friday and the Rochester Americans on Saturday. Both games begin at 7:05 p.m. ET.
Rookie Phantoms defenseman Emil Andrae missed the game due to illness. Elliot Desnoyers (upper body) and Adam Brooks remained out due to injury. The other scratched were coach's decisions by Ian Laperriere. Tuesday's Phantoms starting lineup was as follows:
28 Olle Lycksell - 9 Tanner Laczynski - 27 Samu Tuomaala
17 Garrett Wilson - 22 Rhett Gardner - 19 Wade Allison
16 J.R. Avon - 13 Brendan Furry - 20 Cooper Marody
10 Evan Polei - 15 Jordy Bellerive - 14 Zayde Wisdom
98 Victor Mete - 12 Roonie Attard
8 Mason Millman - 2 Helge Grans
37 Adam Ginning - 5 Ethan Samson
40 Cal Petersen
[31 Parker Gahagen]
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