Isles Drop Tough One to Flyers

4:52 PM - The Islanders lost their 3rd straight game as the Flyers pulled off a comeback, winning 3-2.

For much of the early going of the game, it was pretty even. The Islanders looked very hesitant to play more of an uptempo offensive game, often hanging back in order to prevent the skilled Flyers team from getting any easy chances.

The Flyers would end up scoring in the 1st period. Matt Carle took the puck below the goal line off to Dwayne Roloson's right, threw the puck towards the net and it trickled in. The original scoring there was that it was Jeff Carter's goal, but that was later changed by the second period. The Islanders were only able to register four shots on net in the period to answer the Flyers eight.

The second period provided some more offensive chances for both teams, but no one was able to score. The Islanders had a huge power-play opportunity, which became a 5-on-3 for 28 seconds. They failed to score on it and the struggles continued.

Despite the struggles, rookie defenseman Travis Hamonic seemed optimistic that the Isles power-play, now scoreless on their last 35 chances, will come around. "I think we're generating some chances. It's one thing to be worried about if you're not getting your opportunities, but we're getting them and things are going to break for us."

The 3rd period prooved to be a bit of a whild one when P.A. Parenteau and Frans Nielsen scored 36 seconds apart to give the Isles a 2-1 lead.

Radek Martinek skated into the zone, and dropped the puck back to Rob Schremp who made a nice cross-ice feed to Parenteau for the one-timer goal. Parenteau has come under fire from many Islanders fans for his often missed chances at shooting the puck off a pass, but he got all of this one.

Nielsen came in on the right wing and took a quick shot at Flyers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky that trickled in. There was a bit of a delay after that because they had to be sure the referee did not blow the whistle on Bobrovsky's initial save.

Matt Moulson took an offensive zone penalty, which lead to a Flyers goal by Andreas Nodl which tied the game at two. Andrew MacDonald, who made two blocks on the play, had the 2nd one just get by him and Hamonic didn't see Nodl blow by him originally. It made for a rather easy chip-in.

Shortly after that, Danny Briere would receive a nice pass in the slot from Ville Leino to give the the Flyers a lead and ultimately, the win.

Parenteau was very upset with the way the team started, and even told me as much in the post game.

"It was embarrassing in the first. I don't know if it was the 1 PM start or not, but after that we came out to play."

"It was a lot of the same things," interim Head Coach Jack Capuano said after the game. "Two things went wrong - we made some bad decisions, and we didn't get the pucks deeper when we could have."

"We have to find ways to win again. Losing is unacceptable."

"It seems like the same story over and over," Nielsen said. "We lost on the special teams again."

The Isles will once again go back to the drawing board and try and figure some things out. Their have their next chance on Thursday when they go on the road to face the Boston Bruins.

PODCAST UPDATE: As many of you already know by now, Sean and I usually record our podcast's on Sundays. Obviously since I was in the press box for the game and Sean had a commitment in the evening, we have to put this one on hold for now. Once we come up with the day for it to be recorded, we'll let you guys know. But for now, just hold tight and don't be alarmed when you don't see anything new to download.

-CH

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