Just Short! Islanders Rally From Behind But Fall in OT to Flyers

The Islanders rallied from a three-goal deficit, but it wasn’t enough to come away with a win in Game 2 over the Philadelphia Flyers.

Philippe Myers scored the game-winner 2:40 into the overtime period to tie the series at one game apiece. Myers fired the shot from the blueline and caught the stick of Anders Lee to deflect by Thomas Greiss.

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“We were resilient tonight,” Anders Lee said. “If we just stick with and stay positive we’ll find a way and that’s exactly what we did. Got ourselves to overtime.”

Game 3 of the series is on Thursday at 7 p.m.

It capped a wild game that saw the Islanders score three consecutive goals in the second and third periods, and had Semyon Varlamov taken out of the game after 15:09 of work. The three-goal rally was just third time in franchise history that the Islanders have done so in the playoffs.

Thomas Greiss played 47:32 and made 20 saves in relief.

“I felt pretty good,” Greiss said. “Our goalie coaches have done a good job keeping me sharp. Keeping me going there in practice. When I got out there it wasn’t bad.”

The Islanders cut into the Flyers lead at 11:45 of the second period while on the power play. Mat Barzal shot the puck towards the net and Anders Lee was able to deflect the puck past Carter Hart 17 seconds into the man-advantage.

Anthony Beauvillier scored his team-leading seventh goal of the playoffs on a give and goal. Beauvillier took the puck into the zone and moved it to Josh Bailey, who sent it back to Beauvillier for the goal at 11:11 of the third period.

The goal cut the Flyers lead to 3-2.

Jean-Gabriel Pageau came through again for the Islanders with a goal from the slot at 17:51 of the third. The goal came after the Islanders forced a turn over along the boards.

Kevin Hayes scored the first of his two goals 1:57 into the game to put the Flyers up 1-0. The opening goal came on the Flyers’ first shot of the game and ended Semyon Varlamov’s playoff shutout streak at 138:17.

Hayes extended the lead to two off a sharp angle shot after he weaved his way through the Islanders defense. Philadelphia made it 3-0 after Sean Couturier walked by Nick Leddy and Varlamov for the third time in the period.