Recap: Flyers 6, Islanders 4

Doug Weight was looking for the New York Islanders to do two things against the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night - show some fight and come away with two points.
He got one of the two, as the Islanders got scrappy in a third period comeback bid that got as close as 5-4 on a Ryan Pulock goal with 5:25 to play, but it was not enough to climb out of a pair of early three-goal holes. Ivan Provorov's empty-netter ultimately pushed the final to 6-4 - the Islanders' fourth consecutive defeat.

"We have to stop doing that to ourselves," Pulock said of falling behind by three goals. "We come out, we're not bad and then when something goes wrong it kind of spirals and we can't stop it. We came out hard in the third and stuck up for each other and I think that's really important going forward here."

Down 5-2 after two periods, John Tavares kickstarted the Islanders come-from-behind effort. The captain snapped a wrist shot through an Anders Lee screen for a power-play goal at 6:02, putting the Isles within striking distance. Pulock made it a one-goal game on a terrific individual effort, faking his big shot before wheeling around a Flyers defenseman and beating Brian Elliott (27 saves) high on the short side at 14:35. The Islanders outshot the Flyers 17-7 in the final frame.
"That's the way we need to play night in and night out," Andrew Ladd said of the third period. "We have to figure this out. Obviously this can't continue."

The rivalry game had been developing an edge throughout the night and boiled over after Pulock's goal. Sean Couturier caught Anders Lee with a high blindside hit, prompting Josh Bailey to drop the gloves for his second career fight - and first since Feb. 11, 2011.
Jordan Eberle picked up his first-career fighting major before the end of the contest, dropping the gloves with Scott Laughton in a scrum in the Flyers zone. The fights didn't win them the game, but could serve as an emotional spark as the Islanders look to snap their losing streak.
"The biggest thing is we were a team out there, we worked together and stuck up for each other," Pulock said. "That's a big period for us moving forward and we have to build off it."

Tied 1-1 after 20 minutes, the Flyers scored three straight goals in the opening 6:24 of the second period to open up a 4-1 lead. Michael Raffl deflected a Provorov shot past Thomas Greiss (25 saves) at 1:36, while a Robert Hagg point shot hit traffic in front before Wayne Simmonds cleaned up the rebound at 2:16. Provorov gave the Flyers the three-goal lead with a power-play goal, sending a low wrister into traffic.
"Whether it's tips, backdoors, or goalies not seeing it, we have to clear guys out," said Scott Mayfield, who inked a five-year contract extension Thursday morning.
Cal Clutterbuck's second goal of the game made it 4-2 and provided a momentary momentum change, but Travis Konecny answered on a breakaway 1:30 later to make it 5-2.
Couturier and Clutterbuck each scored first period goals to round out the scoring.

The Islanders-Flyers tilt kicked of a string of four straight games against Metropolitan Division opponents. The Islanders take on the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night, the New Jersey Devils on Sunday afternoon and then the New York Rangers next Saturday.
NOTES:
Greiss made 25 saves in his first start since Dec. 19, while Elliott stopped 28-of-32… Cal Clutterbuck scored his 200th NHL point on a first-period goal.