Phanatic Hockey Editor
The Philadelphia Flyers brought the curtain down on the home portion of a disappointing 2013 season, but not before giving the fans one more thrill.
Ilya Bryzgalov, this publication's choice as team MVP, stopped 21-of-22 shots and rookie defenseman Oliver Lauridsen netted the game winner -- his second tally in as many games -- to pace a 2-1 win over the playoff-bound New York Islanders on Thursday night.
Despite being the subject of rampant rumors and speculation that the front office plans to use an amnesty buy-out on the 31-year-old, Bryzgalov remained sanguine when asked how tough it was with so many AHL defenseman in front of him after continual injuries to the NHL core.
"It's been hard with all the players coming here the first time. But it's always been my philosophy that everyone has to take care of his own business, he said. "You've got to prepare yourself. Not looking for a partner, not looking for somebody else (to help). If you do that, the rest of things take care of themselves. If everyone does their job well, everybody wins."
The Orange and Black (22-22-5) have one more chance to establish this truncated schedule as something less than a failure, as they can finish the year above .500 with a win at Ottawa in the season finale on Saturday.
But their presumptive starting goaltender for next season sees things differently.
"We are not going to make the playoffs. It doesn't matter whether you're two games below or two games above .500. It's pointless. Of course, it's nice to win the games, but at the end of the day it doesn't change anything.''
Danny Briere celebrated with his first goal since February 18 for the Flyers, who evened up the season series, 2-2-0, against their Long Island rivals.
"The last few games I had chance after chance and they didn't seem to want to go in," the long-suffering Briere said. "You start wondering what is going on exactly."
John Tavares notched the lone score and Kevin Poulin came up with 28 stops in defeat for New York, which could have taken over fifth place in the East with a win and Toronto regulation loss. However, after wins by Ottawa and the Rangers, the soon-to-be-Brooklynites fell to the eighth spot.
"It's frustrating for sure, but we're not going to blow it up into something bigger than it is," said Islanders defenseman Travis Hamonic. "Look at what we've done the last 15-20 games and we've done a lot of good things."
New York concludes its season-ending five-game road swing at Buffalo on Friday.
Lauridsen snapped the scoreless deadlock with 6:31 left in the third period when he ripped a rising shot by Poulin from the left circle. Seconds before, Poulin used his right pad to stop a pair of lightning-quick chances in close by Giroux, but the Islanders failed to clear and the Dane scored his first legitimate NHL goal.
"This one was a little different. I had a lot more time to shoot, but I'll take both of them," Lauridsen said of his goals in back-to-back games that found the net in radically different ways. "It's been the goal the entire time (since my call up). We had a lot of guys go down with injuries and I got my shot here in the last 10 games. I've been trying to make a mark for myself and hopefully put myself in position for camp next year."
Poulin was called to the bench for an extra skater with 1:43 on the clock, and the hosts survived four icings during the ensuing 5-on-6 situation to preserve the narrow victory.
The Islanders went more than five minutes from the start without a shot, in a game played at half-speed against a club already in the playoffs and one with no hope of play beyond Saturday.
Bryzgalov flashed the pad to stop a Josh Bailey bid from the right wing in the midst of the Flyers' initial power-play chance roughly midway through the first period.
At the end of the advantage, Brayden Schenn was allowed to tiptoe sideways from the left wing into the slot, where he laid a perfect pass across to Briere through Lubomir Visnovsky's legs for the easy tap-in. Briere's first goal in 19 games gave the hosts a 1-0 edge at 11:41.
"Oh yeah. It's my home, my family. It's the best place to play, you ask anyone in the NHL. The fans have been amazing, it's a special place and I've been fortunate to play for this organization," Briere said about the spectre of his being bought out of the final two years of his remaining contract he signed in the Summer of 2007.
In a nod to the fact that it may be his final home game with Philadelphia, the usually exuberant 35-year-old eschewed his famous glove sweep/arm pump gesture for a more subdued affirmation of the tally.
New York evened the score when Tavares' redirection of a Matt Carkner pass slithered beyond the outstretched paddle of Bryzgalov and over the goal line inside the left post with 1:37 played in the second.
Neither club capitalized on a pair of power-play chances and it was deadlocked at 1-1 heading to the third.
''We came out flat again,'' Isles forward Colin McDonald lamented. ''It's just not good enough. We need to be better. It really doesn't matter that we clinched the playoffs. It doesn't really mean anything. We want to be going into the playoffs playing good hockey, so we have one game left to kind of correct it and head into the playoffs with a good feeling.''
Notes: Lauridsen became the first Dane to actually score a goal in a Flyers' uniform, after his initial tally against Boston was an own-goal from defenseman Zdeno Chara...Philadelphia completed its home schedule with a 15-7-2 record, the sixth straight year with a positive ledger as the host...In addition, this was the first year since 2006-07 the Flyers did not have a winning season-series record against the Isles, having gone 2-5-1 that season...The 2-2-0 record marked the first time since 1995 the Flyers and Islanders had a deadlocked season slate...Philly improved to 7-1-0 in home finales since 2006...Tavares sits four behind league leader Alex Ovechkin of the Capitals (32) in total goals...The Orange and Black improved to 10-7 in games decided by one goal...Prior to the contest, the organization handed out its yearly awards. The Gene Hart Memorial Award (fan picked) went to the injured Zac Rinaldo, the Yanick Dupre Memorial Class Guy Award for media rapport was given to Scott Hartnell, the Pelle Lindbergh Memorial Trophy for most improved player went to Jakub Voracek, the Barry Ashbee Trophy for top defenseman was given to Kimmo Timonen, and Voracek was a double winner, also taking home the Bobby Clarke Trophy as the club's Most Valuable Player.
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