Postgame 5: Flyers Fall on Late Islanders Goal

In the next-to-last game of the 2025-26 preseason, the Philadelphia Flyers lost to the New York Islanders, 4-3, at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Thursday evening. New York scored with 2:54 left in the third period to pull out the win.

Travis Sanheim scored a shorthanded goal for a 1-0 lead at 1:46 of the first period. With Sean Couturier in the box for tripping, Christian Dvorak broke out on a counterattack. Sanheim joined the attack as a trailer. Dvorak dropped a backhanded pass to the defenseman, who buried it past Ilya Sorokin.

On an Islanders' power play, Maxim Shabanov re-directed a feed off the rush from Maxim Tsyplakov over Samuel Ersson to knot the score at 3:45 of the second period. Simon Holmstrom collected the secondary assist.

Travis Konecny fired a low shot through traffic for a 2-1 lead at 11:10. The assists went to Nick Seeler and Couturier.

However, just 15 seconds later, Anders Lee re-tied the game with a wrist shot from the top of the right circle. The assists went to Tsyplakov and Ryan Pulock at 11:25.

Dvorak broke out on another shorthanded breakaway during an Egor Zamula hooking minor. This time, Sorokin made the save.

On the Flyers' first power play of the game, the Islanders struck shorthanded to briefly take a 3-2 lead. Jamie Drysdale attempted an entry pass to Matvei Michkov. The Flyers lost the puck at the blue line. The Islanders broke out on a 2-on-0 breakaway. Jean-Gabriel Pageau fed across to Adam Pelech, who scored at 17:12.

The Flyers' power play got the goal back at 18:05 on a tic-tac-toe hookup. After receiving the puck from Cam York, Tyson Foerster fired a perfect cross-seam pass to Noah Cates. Cates made no mistake, burying the shot in the back of the net for a 3-3 tie.

Emil Heineman put the Islanders ahead to stay on a transition rush at 17:06 of the third period. The assists went to Anthony DuClair and Barzal.

FLYERS STARTING LINEUP

Nikita Grebenkin - Sean Couturier - Travis Konecny

Owen Tippett - Trevor Zegras - Matvein Michkov
Tyson Foerster - Noah Cates - Bobby Brink
Nicolas Deslauriers - Christian Dvorak - Garnet Hathaway

Cam York - Travis Sanheim
Nick Seeler - Jamie Drysdale
Adam Ginning - Egor Zamula

Samuel Ersson
[Dan Vladar]

POSTGAME (5 THINGS REVISITED)

1. Remaining roster battles.

Nikita Grebenkin took the puck to the net for a good scoring chance in the first period. Later, he made a good forechecking play and got the net for his third shot on goal of the opening period. He made some other good plays as the game progressed.

2. Blueline depth chart.

Adam Ginning made two goal plays along the wall in the first period. Rick Tocchet also gave him regular time in the penalty killing rotation. Ginning was caught in between on the game-deciding goal. Overall, he played well in 17:27. Third-pair partner Egor Zamula had a tough game. Tocchet said afterward that the Russian blueliner needs to pick his game compared to his last couple outings.

3. Finding balance on the Zegras line.

The line of Owen Tippett, Trevor Zegras and Matvei Michkov looked dynamic in Wednesday's practice. They were held quiet in Thursday's game.

4. Goaltending performance.

Samuel Ersson looked very sharp in the first period. In the second period, New York struck for three goals on 12 shots. Two of the three (the deflection goal and the 2-on-0) were pretty much unstoppable. In the third period, Ersson stoned Mathew Barzal on a blast off a Nick Seeler turnover. The winning goal came on an transition rush.

5. Flyers power play.

The team canceled out a shorthanded goal against the first unit as the second unit struck for the goal by Cates. That was Philly's lone power play of the game. The Flyers went 2-for-3 on the penalty kill.