PHILADELPHIA – Frans Nielsen scored twice in regulation and Brock Nelson also had a goal for the New York Islanders as they edged the Flyers, 4-3 in a shootout.
Kyle Okposo scored the only goal of the skills competition to give the Isles the win.
Steve Mason started for the Flyers but was pulled after giving up three goals on 10 shots.
“Obviously, that [goalie change] did help a lot,” Wade Simmonds said. “[Neuvirth] came in and he made some huge saves. That one on the breakaway that [Casey] Cizikas had [at 3:54 of the third period], that was a monster save. We kept playing well after that. After we switched and [Neuvirth] came in, I thought it was an all-around good game.”
At that point, the Isles held a 3-1 lead and the change to Michal Neuvirth sparked the Flyers.
“In the second period, I just thought they really took the game over and we weren’t able to get out of our own zone and execute,” Okposo said. “I thought our execution wasn’t great tonight and they were on top of us, and for whatever reason, it just wasn’t our best game.”
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Ryan White and Claude Giroux scored for the Flyers in regulation.
Jaroslav Halak stopped 43 shots in the win.
“We expect our players to perform at a high level,” Islanders coach Jack Capuano said. “Unfortunately, tonight probably 50 percent of our guys didn’t, and [Halak] did.”
The Isles are 6-0-2 in their eight.
“We had the lead and I’m sure if we scored one more goal — it would have been 4-1 — would have been a different game,” Halak said. “They scored right away, 3-2. One goal was called back, lucky for us. We all knew we needed to play better, especially after the second period.”
The feeling in the Flyers locker room was significantly more upbeat.
“We played a hell of a game,” Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said. “We deserved better. Guys played hard. … Guys competed and battled hard. Unfortunately, we couldn’t come up with the second point.”
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