After rolling out a pair of lineups at home that were much closer to what can be expected on opening night, the Flyers lineup against the New York Islanders on Monday was more underwhelming. But for 59 minutes, the Flyers held their own with the more veteran Islanders roster.
It took a goal with 50.2 seconds left in the third period by Kyle Palmieri to decide the game, a 4-3 loss for the Flyers.
There wasn’t much in terms of shots on goal in the opening 20 minutes, but the Islanders had the better of possession time and four power plays in the first period. On the fourth, with under two minutes to play in the period, Mathew Barzal finally cashed in to open the scoring.
Through 20 minutes, shots were 5-4 Islanders.
Early in the second, the Flyers capitalized on a power play as Anthony Richard put a shot into the crease that deflected in. The Islanders answered back with two goals, first a tip-in by Kyle MacLean and another power-play goal on a deflection by Anders Lee.
Ivan Fedotov played the first half of the game and exited making 13 saves on 16 shots.
The Flyers cut the lead back to one just over three minutes later at 14:13. A point shot by Emil Andrae rattled around and deflected in off of Brendan Furry to make it 3-2.
Through two periods, shots were 18-12 Islanders.
Just 2:27 into the third, the Flyers tied the game again on another power-play goal. Rasmus Ristolainen picked up a rebound for his second goal of the preseason to even things at three.
The deadlocked score held until the final 50.2 seconds, when Palmieri got around Helge Grans for positioning and cut to the net, getting Alexei Kolosov down and going upstairs for the eventual game-winning goal.
Kolosov finished with seven saves on eight shots in the final 29 minutes of play in his preseason debut. Jakub Skarek went the distance for the Islanders, making 15 saves on 18 shots.
Johnson had two assists for the Flyers. Palmieri and Mike Reilly each had two-point games for the Islanders.
The Flyers are right back on the ice on Tuesday night against the Boston Bruins at 7 p.m.
Box Score
| 1 | 2 | 3 | T | |
| Flyers | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Islanders | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
Scoring Summary
1st Period
- NYI Mathew Barzal (1) PP (Noah Dobson, Bo Horvat) 18:43
2nd Period
- PHI Anthony Richard (1) PP (Erik Johnson, Scott Laughton) 2:04
- NYI Kyle MacLean (1) (Casey Cizikas) 5:43
- NYI Anders Lee (1) PP (Mike Reilly, Kyle Palmieri) 11:04
- PHI Brendan Furry (1) (Emil Andrae, Johnson) 14:13
3rd Period
- PHI Rasmus Ristolainen (2) PP (Joel Farabee, Egor Zamula) 2:27
- NYI Palmieri (1) (Scott Mayfield, Reilly) 19:09
Game Statistics
| Flyers | Islanders | |
| Shots | 18 | 24 |
| Power Play | 2/3 | 2/5 |
| Hits | 17 | 11 |
| Faceoff % | 55.1% | 44.9% |
| Giveaways | 13 | 17 |
| Takeaways | 3 | 6 |
| Blocked Shots | 17 | 8 |
| Penalty Minutes | 10 | 6 |
