Islanders rally from three-goal deficit before falling to Flyers in shootout; Kyle Palmieri injured
The Flyers' Travis Konecny scores during the shootout against the Islanders' David Rittich at UBS Arena on Friday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
If those were Kyle Palmieri’s final seconds on ice for the Islanders in a while because of a lower-body injury, and it sure looks as if that might be the case, the Smithtown product exited with one of the gutsiest efforts his teammates have seen.
“Everyone’s been in the position where something happens and you just want to get off the ice,” defenseman Scott Mayfield said. “He stuck with it and made a pretty good play. It’s cool to see.”
Palmieri somehow regained his skates and his composure after lying on the ice clutching his left knee behind the Flyers’ crease, retrieved the puck and set up the Islanders’ first score to spark their rally from a three-goal deficit in the second period before limping down the tunnel to the team’s dressing room.
Still, the Islanders lost in a shootout, 4-3, on Friday at UBS Arena and fell to 1-2-1 on their seven-game homestand. Travis Konecny scored the deciding shootout goal.
“No [update],” coach Patrick Roy said of Palmieri. “He’ll see the doctor tomorrow. But I think everybody knows it doesn’t look very good.”
Palmieri was hurt as he checked defenseman Jamie Drysdale racing to the end wall in the offensive zone. He had to support himself along the glass as he kept weight off his left leg. As he limped back toward the Islanders’ bench, he was able to steal the puck from defenseman Emil Andrae and pass it to Jonathan Drouin before stepping off the ice. Drouin then fed Emil Heineman for the goal.
The top-six right wing’s expected extended absence would leave another hole in the Islanders’ lineup. Within the past 11 days, they’ve lost defenseman Alexander Romanov (right shoulder/injured reserve) for the rest of the regular season and third-line center Jean-Gabriel Pageau (upper body) on a week-by-week basis.
The Islanders (13-9-3), who hadn’t scored a power-play goal in seven games, went 1-for-5 with six shots, though they couldn’t convert on a four-minute opportunity late in the third period. David Rittich, who allowed two goals on the first three shots he faced, both off bad turnovers, made 18 saves and Samuel Ersson stopped 28 shots for the Flyers (13-7-3).
The immediate impact of Palmieri’s absence was more playing time for Russian rookie Max Shabanov. He logged a career-high 22:19 with three shots and an assist as he was elevated to Palmieri’s spot on Bo Horvat’s line with Heineman and skated on the second power-play unit. Shabanov’s previous best for ice time was 14:31, and he missed 12 games from Oct. 23-Nov. 14 with an upper-body injury.
“He was outstanding,” Roy said. “He brought some energy to the team. The way he moves on the ice is very shifty. It was nice to see him play that way.”
Palmieri exited at 5:42 of the second period with a secondary assist on Heineman’s goal to bring the Islanders within 3-1. Heineman matched the 10 goals he scored as a rookie with the Canadiens last season.
“It’s [Palmieri’s] goal, pretty much,” said Heineman, who also hit the right post and the crossbar in the third period. “It was such a nice play to go to the bench and just pick the stick there and make such a good play. What a play.”
“[Palmieri] is one of the toughest players I’ve played with,” said Anders Lee, who deflected defenseman Matthew Schaefer’s blue-line shot to tie it at 3-3 with 46.8 seconds left in the second period as the Islanders snapped an 0-for-29 power-play rut dating to the first period in Las Vegas on Nov. 13.
“It takes a lot for him to be forced to stay on the ice a little bit long and be keeled over. It was a gutsy play by him to battle through that pain. He didn’t just take the puck. He got it and had some poise with it, too.”
Schaefer skated into the left circle for a wrister to make it 3-2 at 8:11 of the second period on a delayed penalty.
Tyson Foerster stole the puck from Heineman to make it 1-0 at 8:30 of the first period and Sean Couturier intercepted defenseman Tony DeAngelo’s errant pass for a second unassisted goal 22 seconds later.
Trevor Zegras’ power-play goal off Ryan Pulock’s skate at 1:55 of the second period gave the Flyers a three-goal lead and snapped the Islanders’ 10-for-10 penalty-kill streak over the previous six games.
Notes & quotes: Defenseman Travis Mitchell, 26, an undrafted free agent out of Cornell in his third season in the Islanders’ organization, logged 9:05 in his NHL debut . . . Schaefer became the youngest defenseman in NHL history with eight goals in his first 25 games . . . It was a fourth straight sell-out crowd of 17,255 . . . Defenseman Adam Boqvist and forward Max Tsyplakov were the healthy scratches.
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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