Philadelphia Flyers Rookies Lose In Shootout Against New York Islanders

The Philadelphia Flyers unofficial first game of the 2019-20 season is now in the books.

After an active offseason from General Manager Chuck Fletcher, the Philadelphia Flyers finally had a hockey game to play as they took on the New York Islanders in their annual Rookie Game. Felix Sandstrom received the start in-net and opposed Linus Soderstrom for the Isles. Soderstrom posted a 2.79 Goals Against Average, and a .894 save percentage in 14 games with HV71 in the SHL in 2017-18 and should get time with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in the AHL this upcoming year.

The top line consisting of Joel Farabee, Morgan Frost, and Isaac Ratcliffe carried the bulk of the Flyers offense during the first period, as the other three lines struggled to get out of their own zone when they were on the ice. The Islanders applied plenty of offensive pressure throughout the stanza, but Sandstrom was up to the task on all of them, saving all 18 shots New York threw at him.

Philadelphia was able to get on the board late in the first, as Philippe Myers deked an Isles winger at the top of the offensive zone and set-up German Rubtsov with a beauty of a pass to give the Orange and Black the lead. Myers played aggressively during the first 20 minutes, leading rushes and creating chances for the team. Defenseman Sean Comrie, a camp invite, scored the Flyers second goal just 34 seconds after their first and put Philadelphia ahead 2-0 heading into the second period. Frost and Ratcliffe each obtained an assist on the tally, with Frost making an outstanding tape-to-tape feed to Comrie for the primary.

The Flyers went on two power-plays to begin the middle stanza and were able to score on the second as Rubtsov deflected a Mikhail Vorobyev shot passed Soderstrom to gift his team a 3-0 advantage. New York got one back a few minutes later thanks to Felix Bibeau on the power-play, cutting the Philly lead to two. Sandstrom couldn’t do much to save Bibeau’s shot, as the Islander forward tapped home the puck from the low slot following a nice pass from one of his teammates.

The Swedish goaltender, then, gave way to Kirill Ustimenko halfway through the second period and finished the game making 24 saves on 25 shots. Ustimenko ended up surrendering a goal on the first shots he saw, because lol Flyers, and the Philadelphia lead stood at one with six minutes to go in the frame. To be fair, there was a lot of traffic in front of the 6’3 net-minder, and it wasn’t an easy save to make. David Kase quickly put the Flyers back up by two, displaying an impressive wrister from the right circle that beat Jakub Skarek on the short side. Philadelphia kept their 4-2 lead to end the second and closed the shots-on-goal gap from 18-9 to 29-24.

New York received a man advantage early in the third and fully capitalized on it, as Samuel Bolduc deflected a puck by Ustimenko to make it a 4-3 contest. Once again, Ustimenko couldn’t do much given how good of a redirect Bolduc put in the net. Otto Koivula went on to tie the game shortly after the PP tally, scoring in front of the crease to knot everything up at four.

Ustimenko and the entire Flyers team eventually found their barrings and killed off two Islander power-plays to keep things game tied. Neither squad could register a goal in the final couple of minutes, and the game needed extra time in order to decide a victor.

After a 3-on-3 OT failed to produce a tally, though each side came close to getting one, the Flyers fell to the Isles 5-4 thanks to an Oliver Wahlstrom shootout winning goal. While the Orange and Black couldn’t get the win, a good amount of their prospects impressed against their Metropolitan Division foe and don’t have too much to be ashamed of in an exhibition loss.

The Flyers next game will be on Monday, September 16th when they officially kick off the preseason against the, you guessed it, Islanders.