Flyers take ninth straight loss

PHILADELPHIA – Everything seemed to be “9s” on Tuesday night. It took nine rounds of the skills competition for the New York Islanders to habe the Flyers their ninth straight loss, 4-3.

Oliver Wahlstrom hit for the only goal in 18 chances for the deciding goal.

“I thought it ended up being a pretty even game,” Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said. “Both teams were skating, both teams were playing pretty well. We just battled away.”

Semyon Varlamov made 31 saves in the win, he stopped all nine skaters he faced in the skills.

Overtime and the skills competition became necessary when the Isles’ Casey Cizikas tied the game with less than five left in the regulation clock.

“It feels good,” Cizikas said. “We’re working right now. I just tried to bust up the ice and get to the front of the net. It just comes from hard work. Just keep going.

“I thought in the third period we played well. Even when we went down, we kept pushing, kept trying to put pucks in the net.”

Claude Giroux had a goal and two points in the losing effort.

“We know we’re playing the right way right now,” Giroux said. “Tonight, maybe we did deserve to win. At this point we’re just finding ways to lose hockey games.”

The two teams exchanged goals during regulation.

Robin Salo spotted the Islanders to a 1-0 lead in the first period, but James van Riemsdyk tied it,1-1, off the power play.

“Losing [stinks], there’s no other way around it,” Philadelphia coach Mike Yeo said. “It’s difficult because you see the effort that was put in tonight, the way guys were blocking shots, paying a price for each other. It felt like a lot of the areas of our team game were really strong. We didn’t come up with the win, so that’s what we take out of this one. That’s what me and the staff have to do right now, make sure that we stay focused, motivated, handle it the right way.

“It’s adversity, it’s difficult. [We’re] seeing progress in our game, but it’s hard to sit here when you’re in a losing streak like this and feel good about progress. But we have no other choice but to keep getting better.”

New York’s Josh Bailey scored in the middle frame for a 2-1 lead.

“It’s been a real difficult year for us,” Trotz said. “We feel like we’ve been part of the league, and then we’re not. It’s felt like we’re an independent college team and we’re randomly playing. … We’ve got to make up some games. They’re going to be compressed and it’s a challenge, but I think this group’s up for the challenge.

“The confidence comes with playing well. It’s starting to grow. The trust is starting to grow, which is key.”

Travis Konecny knotted, 2-2, heading to the third period.

The Flyers fell to 13-18-8.