Islanders lose to Flyers, who get physical with rookie Matthew Schaefer
The Philadelphia Flyers' Trevor Zegras celebrates his goal with teammates past Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin during the third period of an NHL game Saturday in Philadelphia. Credit: AP/Derik Hamilton
PHILADELPHIA — The NHL education of No. 1 overall pick Matthew Schaefer took a hostile turn in Saturday’s 4-3 shootout loss to the Flyers at Xfinity Mobile Arena as the hosts rallied from a two-goal deficit.
The crowd booed Schaefer from the first time he touched the puck — something that did not happen in the Islanders’ first two road games — and the Flyers clearly tried to distract him with their physicality.
“There’s going to be nights where guys are coming after you,” Schaefer said. “There’s always going to be obstacles that come. It’s fun. We would have liked to get the win. At least we got the point.”
The Islanders (4-3-1) took a 2-0 lead and led 3-2 in the third period, helped by two assists from defenseman Marshall Warren of Laurel Hollow in his NHL debut. He set up Anthony Duclair at 6:15 of the second period and had his blue-line blast tipped by Max Tsyplakov at 4:21 of the third period.
But the Islanders saw their four-game winning streak snapped to open this four-game road trip as Trevor Zegras tied it with a power-play goal at 7:32 of the third period and Matvei Michkov scored the deciding shootout goal.
“You can’t really turn it off against any team in this league,” said Simon Holmstrom, who opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal off Jean-Gabriel Pageau’s feed at 9:51 of the first period. “You’ve just got to keep going. We’ve got to be ready for the push and kill off that penalty kill at the end.”
It was a chippy game featuring the Islanders’ first two fights of the season. Defenseman Scott Mayfield confronted Garnet Hathaway and got his forehead bloodied at 16:40 of the first period after Hathaway’s hard check on Casey Cizikas.
Kyle MacLean and the Flyers’ Rodrigo Abols dropped the gloves at 2:12 of the third period in an extended scrum in which Nikita Grebenkin skated across the Islanders’ zone after the whistle trying to get at Schaefer while linesman Shandor Alphonso tried to restrain Grebenkin.
Both received roughing minors, marking Schaefer’s first NHL penalty minutes.
“I don’t know what I really did there, to be honest,” Schaefer said. “But whatever.”
“I thought he kept his focus,” coach Patrick Roy said of Schaefer. “But I also liked the way our guys responded as well.”
Zegras set up Christian Dvorak at the net to pull the Flyers within 2-1 at 10:29 of the second period and took Dvorak’s feed to tie it at 2-2 at 1:54 of the third period.
Ilya Sorokin stopped 23 shots and Samuel Ersson made four of his 23 saves in overtime for the Flyers (4-3-1). That included a lunging glove save on Bo Horvat as he got to the crease for Jonathan Drouin’s feed at 1:04.
“I really thought we won the game,” Roy said. “That was a really good save.”
Andrew Gross joined Newsday in 2018 to cover the Islanders. He began reporting on the NHL in 2003 and has previously covered the Rangers and Devils. Other assignments have included the Jets, St. John’s and MLB.
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