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The New York Islanders suffered their second straight loss, falling 5-3 at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night at UBS Arena.

Bo Horvat (PPG), Mathew Barzal and Anders Lee (PPG) scored for the Islanders, but it wasn’t enough to counter goals from Sean Couturier (1G,1A), Garnet Hathaway, Morgan Frost, Cam York (GWG) and Noah Cates (ENG), while Travis Konecny had a three-assist night. Ilya Sorokin made 19 saves on 23 shots, while Sam Ersson made 26 saves on 29 shots.

“I think we have to be disappointed in the result tonight,” Horvat said. “We did some good things, but we also did some bad things that cost us. If you want to be consistently winning in this league, playing against a rival like this, we have to be a lot better than we were tonight.”

The stakes were high heading into the first meeting between the division rivals with an important two points on the line for both teams, neck-and-neck in the packed Metro standings. The Islanders entered the game three points back of the Flyers with two games in-hand, but the Islanders (41 points) lost ground on Philly (46 points), with five points separating them in the standings.

PHI at NYI | Recap

HOW IT HAPPENED

Early into the contest, Max Tsyplakov laid a hit on Ryan Poehling in the Islanders’ d-zone, which was ruled as a clean hit upon review, but the Flyers forward left the game and did not return.

That proved consequential, because Instead of negating an Islanders power play, the Islanders broke out of their slump when Horvat opened the scoring at 9:21 of the first period.

That was the last Islanders lead of the night, as the Flyers stormed back in the second period. They tied it 5:15 of the middle frame, as an Anthony Duclair turnover at the Islanders’ blue line sent Joel Farabee went the other way before feeding Sean Couturier in front the net, who tied it at one apiece at 5:15 of the second period.

The Islanders started to unravel in the middle frame, as Hathaway and Konecny broke the puck out shorthanded, rushed into the Isles zone with Konecny sending a cross-ice pass to Hathaway, who one-timed it from the left circle at 9:29 of the frame. The Flyers extended their lead to 3-1 when Morgan Frost finished off a tic-tac-toe play with Owen Tippett at 13:41 of the second period.

“We were turning too many pucks over in the second period, giving them too many odd man rushes,” Horvat said. “Sorokin had to make some big saves. We have to be more consistent.”

Down 3-1, Roy made a change to his lines, swapping Nelson and Horvat to reunite Barzal and Horvat on a line with Anders Lee. Barzal carried the puck from the neutral zone, drove to the net and shelfed a wrister past Ersson to get the Isles within one.

York reestablished the Flyers’ two-goal lead, making it 4-2 at the 5:16 mark of the third.

The Islanders mounted a comeback bid late With a second power-play goal. With the goalie pulled, Horvat’s shot deflected off Lee to cut the deficit to 4-3 in a chaotic scene around the net.

Again, that was as close as the Isles came, as Cates buried an empty net goal to seal the deal for the Flyers at 18:48 of the final frame.

PHI 5 at NYI 3: Roy

MIXED BAG FOR SPECIAL TEAMS

The Islanders’ power play went 2-for-2 against the Flyers, snapping a 14-game skid where they went 0-for-25 on the power play, which marked the longest drought in franchise history.

“It’s good to get the monkey off our back, it was bothering us for a long time,” Lee said.

Horvat picked up two power-play points with a goal and an assist, while Lee earned his 20th goal of the season and fourth on the power play. Though the Islanders saw two power play goals, the man advantage also allowed Hathaway’s shorthanded goal to take a 2-1 lead and gave Philly momentum.

"Unfortunately, the shorthanded goal hurt us," Roy said. "I felt like we kept pushing at the end, scoring on that power play to make it a one goal game. But we need more consistency, more urgency from the start to the end. We cannot have holes in our game."

Though the penalty kill went a perfect 4-for-4, York’s goal at 5:16 of the third was scored two seconds after Dennis Cholowski’s penalty – his third of the game – had expired, so the defenseman had yet to rejoin the play.

LINEUP NOTES

Ilya Sorokin returned to action after he missed two games with an illness. JG Pageau, who missed Tuesday’s game with an illness, was also back in the lineup and skated Casey Cizikas and Anthony Duclair.

OODS AND ENDS

  • Lee buried his 20th goal of the season on Thursday, which marks his fourth consecutive 20-goal season and ninth of his career.
  • Horvat and Noah Dobson led the team with seven shots on goal.
  • Barzal has seven points (2G, 5A) in his last seven games.

NOTABLE QUOTE

Roy on how his team's turnovers prove to be costly:

"The quality of our turnovers give them really nice odd man rushes. There are mistakes you can make, but mistakes you can't make, and unfortunately for us, we pay for it.”

NEXT GAME

The Islanders’ season-long seven-game homestand continues with a matchup against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday. It’s a special night for the franchise, as Brent Sutter will be inducted into the Hall of Fame and honored with a pregame ceremony. Puck drop is set for 7:30 p.m.

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