Sean Couturier lifts Philadelphia Flyers past New York Islanders 3-2 – NHL Update
Scott Hartnell, Wayne Simmonds and Sean Couturier, each scored a goal and goalie, Sergei Bobrovsky, made 33 saves as the Philadelphia Flyers defeated New York Islanders, 3-2, in the National Hockey League (NHL) game on Thursday, January 12, 2012, at the
Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Uniondale, New York, United States.
After falling behind for the first two periods, Islanders came right back sharply in the final period and scored two goals but Bobrovsky outsmarted the Islanders’ attack to improve his record against New York to 7-0.
Flyers’ coach, Peter Laviolette, appreciated Bobrovsky and commented about his performance.
"He was terrific. He looked really sharp through the entire game, and he's looked that way for his last 10 starts or so. He did a good job. He was sharp".
The Islanders did well to contain the Flyers in the first period, but went shorthanded after giving away a penalty – a chance that was fully utilised by Flyers.
During the power-play, Claude Giroux won a faceoff in the offensive zone against Josh Bailey and found Jaromir Jagr who set up Scott Hartnell for the first goal of the game at 17:20.
After the victory, Hartnell expressed his delight while admiring the confidence of his teammates.
"It's been a lot of games -- I don't know if in a row, but 24, 25 I think it is. Some teams just have a team's number. They haven't had the best team success the last few years since I've been around. I don't want to say it's been easy, but when you have
confidence coming into the building and you have a feeling you're going to win, it's a great feeling to have".
In the second period, both teams once again made plenty of attempts towards goal, but could not succeed.
At 13:08, Kimmo Timonen’s shot was blocked by Islanders’ defenseman, Mark Streit, but the puck found Simmonds’ stick after getting deflected off Streit, and the Flyers’ winger scored the second goal of the game.
New York Islanders kicked off a comeback in the final period.
Within the first minute, they registered their first goal when Andrew MacDonald and Matt Moulson combined for an assist to set up Kyle Okposo for his 10th goal of the 2011-2012 regular season.
However, the rest of the period was dominated by the goalies, who survived the attack from their respective opponents, up until the final two minutes.
At 18:30, Flyers increased their lead when Couturier scored a goal after receiving support from Matt Read and Maxime Talbot.
After around a minute, John Tavares scored for the Islander and reduced the deficit to one goal, however, they could not move further forward and the score stayed the same at the end of the game.
The Flyers got their second straight victory and are now going to face Nashville Predators on Saturday, while the Islanders will take on Buffalo Sabres on the same day.
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