Isles down Flyers, 3-2

The new look New York Islanders hosted the Philadelphia Flyers in Uniondale on Thursday and skated off with a 3-2 win on penalties.

Brock Nelson had only goal in skills competition the New York Islanders

Brock Nelson  potted the only goal in the skills competition for the win.

He also scored in regulation.

“We came out pretty good and got the early lead, something we’ve been talking about and want to do more of,” Nelson said. “But I think tonight, we maybe took our foot off a bit, they had some chances. The five-minute power play (in the first period), we really didn’t get much on it for momentum. You’d like to get something out of that. They were able to kind of find one, get a weird one and get back into it, and then the second period they probably outplayed us. Some nights it’s not always going to go your way, it’s going to be tough. It’s nice that we’re in here now on top.”

Ilya Sorokin made 25 saves in the win; he also stopped five shooters in the skills portion of the evening.

“I think his confidence every time he goes in the net is growing,” Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said. “We’re fortunate we have two goaltenders (Semyon Varlamov). You look at this month and the competition that we’re up against, it’s going to be vital for us to have any success.”

Nicolas Aube-Kubel and Jakub Voracek  were the Flyers strikers.

“It is frustrating. We’ve got to find [a way] to win those games,” Voracek said. “You have no other choice [but to] kind of stay focused. Obviously, if you get four, five wins in a row, you are right in the mix. That’s keeping us alive. Hopefully we are going to put it together. We have to. We have no other choice.”

Nelson scored in the first period for a 1-0 lead, and Jordan Eberle  doubled it to 2-0 in the opening frame.

“Not an easy situation to start,” Philadelphia head coach Alain Vigneault said. “Not because our guys weren’t doing the right things. We battled back hard, we’re competing, we’re trying every shift, nobody put their heads down.”

Aube-Kubel  and Voracek tied the game with second period goals.

Carter Hart made 21 saves. in the loss.