Flyers hang on, send Islanders to fourth straight loss

PHILADELPHIA -- Ivan Provorov had two goals and an assist to lift the Philadelphia Flyers to a 6-4 victory against the New York Islanders at Wells Fargo Center on Thursday.
Sean Couturier had a goal and an assist, and Michael Raffl, Wayne Simmonds and Travis Konecny scored for Philadelphia (17-15-8). Brian Elliott made 27 saves.

WATCH: [All Islanders vs. Flyers highlights]
The Flyers said they needed a better performance after a 5-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins at home Tuesday.
"We all knew that's not what we wanted, especially against Pittsburgh in our house," Raffl said. "Everybody was really [angry]. We answered tonight, and it feels really good."
Cal Clutterbuck had two goals for New York (20-17-4), and John Tavares and Ryan Pulock scored. Thomas Greiss made 26 saves.
It was the fourth straight loss for the Islanders (0-4-0), their longest streak since they lost five in a row (0-4-1) from Dec. 10-18, 2016. The last time they lost four in a row in regulation was March 10-17, 2015.
The Flyers led 5-2 entering the third period and held off a late charge by the Islanders. Tavares scored on the power play at 6:02 to made it 5-3. Then Pulock picked up a loose puck at the Islanders blue line, skated into the Flyers zone, faked a shot, went around defenseman Robert Hagg, and lifted a shot from in close over Elliott's left shoulder to make it 5-4.

Provorov scored into an empty net on the power play with 12.1 seconds remaining to make it 6-4.
"We didn't end the game the way we wanted to," Provorov said. "We battled hard, stuck with it. We'll do some video, learn from our mistakes, and get better."
Provorov said he felt he especially was better after being minus-2 against the Penguins.
"The game against Pittsburgh wasn't my best," he said. "Those games happen. It's just, you've got to be able to learn from those and bounce back. I think I came out with the right mentality today and I was able to bounce back for myself."
Provorov's third three-point game in the NHL came in front of his mother, father, brother and sister, who are in from Yaroslavl, Russia, for Philadelphia's four-game homestand.
"They've got two more games here, so I'll try to score a couple more in the next few games," he said.

The Flyers took the lead with two goals in 40 seconds early in the second period, when they scored four times.
Raffl redirected a Provorov shot past Greiss at 1:36 to make it 2-1, and then Simmonds pulled a puck out of traffic in front of the Islanders net and scored at 2:16 to make it 3-1.
Provorov scored a power-play goal at 6:24 of the second to make it 4-1.
Clutterbuck scored his second of the game at 12:26 to cut the Flyers lead to 4-2, but Konecny scored on a breakaway at 13:56 to make it 5-2.
The Islanders outshot the Flyers 17-7 in the third, but coach Doug Weight was unhappy with his team's effort in the first and second periods.

"I like the way we played, but it's unfortunate we have go in and scream and yell and have a conniption and threaten and sit [Mathew] Barzal on the bench for six minutes, and [Jordan Eberle], and then we play the right way," he said.
The Flyers took a 1-0 lead on Couturier's power-play goal at 8:38 of the first period. Clutterbuck tied it 1-1 when he tipped Nick Leddy's shot past Elliott.

Goal of the game

Pulock's goal at 14:35 of the third period.

Save of the game

Elliott stopping Eberle with 4:46 remaining in the third period.

Highlight of the game

Couturier's flip pass to Konecny leading to a goal at 13:56 of the third period.

They said it

"We come out, we're not bad, then something goes wrong, it kind of spirals and we can't stop it." -- Islanders defenseman Ryan Pulock
"We came out tonight and right off the bat we were playing our game. … If we can bring this effort for the next 3 1/2 months until playoff time as many times as we can, it's going to give us the best chance to make the playoffs here." -- Flyers forward Jordan Weal

Need to know

Clutterbuck ended an 18-game goal drought. He had not scored since Nov. 24, against the Flyers. It was his fifth two-goal NHL game, first since March 26, 2016, against the Carolina Hurricanes. … Voracek had two assists and leads the NHL with 40. He was tied with Islanders forward Josh Bailey for most in the League entering the game. … Giroux had two assists, giving him 18 in the past 13 games.

What's next

Islanders: Host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday (7 p.m. ET; SN, TVA Sports, MSG+, ATTSN-PT, NHL.TV)
Flyers: Host the St. Louis Blues on Saturday (1 p.m. ET; SN, NBCSP, FS-MW, NHL.TV)