Phanatic Hockey Editor
James van Riemsdyk recorded his first career hat trick to fuel Philadelphia's 4-1 victory over the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum.
Jeff Carter added a goal and one assist for the Flyers, who snapped a two-game losing skid and opened up a four-point margin over idle second-place Pittsburgh in the Atlantic Division.
Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 36-of-37 shots for Philadelphia, which reached the 100-point plateau for the first time since 2005-06 and maintained its two-point lead over Washington (100-98) in the race for the top seed in the Eastern Conference. The Capitals shut out the Canadiens in Montreal.
Blake Comeau picked up the lone score for the Islanders, who have lost two in a row and five of their last seven. Rick DiPietro allowed all four scores on 22 shots.
Carter took an early holding penalty but atoned for his mistake at 8:11 of the opening period, when he one-timed a rolling puck off a left-circle faceoff win by Claude Giroux.
Just 22 seconds later, van Riemsdyk beat his checker along the right wing and fired a low shot on DiPietro, but the New Jersey native slid the rebound through the five-hole for a 2-0 game.
New York got on the board at 10:28, when Josh Bailey hit Bobrovsky with a high shot and Comeau potted the bouncing rebound at the left post with a backhand.
The Flyers went up 3-1 with 6:35 left in the first when Andrej Meszaros' miss from the right point bounced right out to van Riemsdyk on the left side for an easy tap-in.
Bobrovsky did the splits and robbed Kyle Okposo with the glove in front six minutes into the second period to thwart a 2-on-none break. He stopped 15 shots in all and helped the Flyers kill two short-handed situations to preserve the visitors' two-goal edge.
Van Riemsdyk capped his trifecta at the 9:15 mark of the third period on a power play, when his shot from the slot ticked off an Islanders stick and rolled through DiPietro's pads for a 4-1 Flyers edge.
Notes: Philadelphia has beaten the Islanders in 20 of the last 21 meetings overall, including all five this season...The victory ties the Flyers' franchise record for most road wins in a season with 24, first set in 2002-03...Giroux notched two assists....These clubs meet for the final time in their respective
regular-season finales at Philadelphia on April 9...This was the 18th time in Flyers history the club reached the 100-point mark, and the fastest (74 games) since taking 73 contests to hit 100 points in 1985-86...Scott Hartnell was the last Flyers player to score three times on DiPietro, back on January 19, 2008 in a 5-3 Philly win.
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