Flyers take another one over Isles

By Bob Herpen
Phanatic Hockey Editor

Sean Couturier netted the deciding goal late in regulation, as Philadelphia continued its recent run of dominance over the New York Islanders with a 3-2 decision at Nassau Coliseum.

"He looked sharp, I thought, throughout the entire game," said Flyers head coach Peter Laviolette of his goaltender, who has shaken off a Winter Classic loss with back-to-back wins on the road. "The second period wasn't good for us, we stopped shooting the puck and gave up too much and he was solid for us."

Scott Hartnell and Wayne Simmonds also scored for the Flyers, who have won four of their last five overall and eight straight over their division rivals. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 33-of-35 shots as Philly improved to 26-2-0 against the Isles since the start of the 2007-08 season.

Kyle Okposo and John Tavares tallied for the Islanders, who have dropped three of four. Evgeni Nabokov allowed three goals on 22 shots, falling to 6-11-0 on the year.

Okposo spoiled Bobrovsky's shutout bid, putting the Isles on the board at the 22-second mark of the third by slamming home a puck that deflected off teammate Matt Moulson's skate.

The hosts escaped a short-handed situation after New York defenseman Steve Staios elbowed Max Talbot with 4:25 remaining but was not penalized, then Bobrovsky made a point-blank save on a Milan Jurcina drive seconds later.

Couturier finally bailed out his backstop on a rising shot from the left circle with 90 seconds to play for a 3-1 Philly edge.

With Nabokov on the bench for an extra skater, Tavares hit the net on a backhander with 15.7 seconds to go, but that was all the Isles had in the tank.

"When we play as well as we did tonight, you'd think we'd come out on top most times," Islanders defenseman Andrew MacDonald said. "The fact is, when we play them, we don't always play that well. I think if we continue to play the way we played tonight, we're going to have success."

Michael Grabner was given a penalty shot after he was taken down from behind by Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen on a short-handed break with 2:49 played, but Bobrovsky turned aside the chance with his blocker.

It was 1-0 for the visitors as Hartnell was credited with a redirection of a Jaromir Jagr shot for a power-play goal with 2:40 left in the first.

Grabner was denied again on a clean breakaway near the midway point of the second period, and Simmonds managed to slip a shot from behind the goal line through Nabokov at 13:08.

Notes: Bobrovsky improved to 7-0 lifetime against the Islanders...Jagr upped his career total to 142 points (59G, 83A) in 93 games against the Isles...With a secondary assist, Flyers forward and leading scorer Claude Giroux avoided going pointless for the first time since Novembe 24-December 1, 2010...Tavares, who was voted the lone Isles representative to the All-Star Game, extended his point streak to seven games (4G, 9A)...Danny Briere played in his 300th game with the Flyers...Giroux and Timonen were voted as All-Stars while Matt Read and Couturier were named to the rookie squad...Simmonds snapped an eight-game goal drought.