Brock Nelson scored his second goal of the game with 17:27 remaining in the third period and Ilya Sorokin made 34 saves as the host New York Islanders continued their recent success over the Philadelphia Flyers by holding on for a 3-2 victory Wednesday night in Elmont, N.Y.
Nelson scored twice for the second time this season as the Islanders won their eighth straight home game with the Flyers. New York also won its second straight following a seven-game skid and improved to 12-2-0 in the past 14 meetings with their Metropolitan Division rival.
Anders Lee also scored while Adam Pelech and Pierre Engvall collected two assists apiece by setting up Nelson’s goals.
Cam York and Joel Farabee scored for the Flyers, who saw a five-game winning streak stopped. Philadelphia goaltender Carter Hart made 22 saves.
Nelson also became the eighth player in team history to score 250 goals with the team when he tallied in the second and netted both goals in similar ways.
Nelson got his milestone goal with 6:50 left in the second and gave the Islanders a 2-0 lead by moving to the right side of the crease and using his stick to redirect Pelech’s pass from the boards into the left side of the net.
York made it a one-goal game a little over a minute after Nelson’s milestone by sweeping in a backhander from a sharp angle after being denied by Sorokin’s diving save.
Nelson restored New York’s two-goal advantage moments after the Flyers committed a turnover near the neutral zone. After Pelech gained possession, he fed the puck to Engvall, who whipped a nifty cross-ice pass to Nelson, who finished it off by sending the puck into the vacated right side of the net.
Nelson’s second goal wound up as the game-winner when Farabee tipped in a cross-ice pass from Bobby Brink that caromed off a New York stick into the slightly vacated left side of the net following an Islanders’ misplay with about four minutes to go.
Before Nelson scored, the Islanders opened the scoring 1:49 into the game following a Philadelphia giveaway in its defensive zone.
Oliver Wahlstrom pried the puck loose from defenseman Egor Zamula along the boards near the blue line and sent it behind the net. Lee got the loose puck and found just enough space at the left edge of the crease to slide the puck past Hart.
–Field Level Media