Islanders’ Nabokov Says Nyet To Flyers, Wins Shootout Russian duels Russian in net battle, but Islanders’ goaltender stops 45 shots to shut out Philadelphia

Philadelphia -- Coming off a lost weekend against a pair of New York area teams, the Philadelphia Flyers entered Tuesdays contest with the New York Islanders hoping not to strike out against the third.

Islanders goaltender Evgeni Nabokov had other ideas, as he put on a goaltending clinic, stopping all 45 shots he faced, along with two shootout chances, to drop the hometown club 1-0 in a shootout.

Nabokov started the game with excellent vision and lateral movement and it was plain to see that he was on his game. Entering the game undefeated in his last five starts with a sub 2.00 goals against average, showed equal parts vision and reaction time making several nice stops, including a one timer chance in the slot by Flyers winger Scott Hartnell. As the game progressed, it became obvious that it was going to require a Herculean effort to put the puck behind him.

"Yeah, when you look at the game, he made some huge saves for us,” Islanders head coach Jack Capuano said after the contest. “Anytime you get goaltending like that, normally you win a hockey game and we did that tonight against a really good team."

At the other end of the ice, the Flyers looked to see if goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov could rebound from a tough finish to their Sunday contest to the Rangers. For the most part, the Russian goaltender was up to the task, stopping a number of early odd man breaks as a shaky Flyers defense committed a number of turnovers, with the first seeing the Islanders four minutes into the game when winger PA Parenteau firing a one- time shot in tight that the Russian was able to stop with his left pad.

Returning from a concussion, forward Danny Briere debuted on a line with rookie Brayden Schenn and winger Wayne Simmonds to a loud ovation. It took a while for him to get his skating legs, but began to generate chances on the power play in the second, more speed in the third on his regular shifts, and gaining more actively involved in physical play.

Claude Giroux, mired in a goal scoring slump with only two in the last 15 games, was doing his best to generate chances but after two good chances in the first period were stopped by the Islanders goaltender, he started passing up shooting opportunities in favor of trying one extra pass to generate offense.

Flyers led in shots 10-7 at the end of the first period, but the Islanders had more quality chances. A major issue for the home club was the fact that players hanging back at the perimeter with no one rotating towards the net, hence they generated little sustained pressure on Nabokov.

"Yeah, we let him do whatever he wanted,” Giroux said after the game. “He had the whole crease to himself and offensively we had a lot of chances. We were moving the puck in the D. We were aggressive. But in the end of the day we’ve got to find a way to beat the goalie."

That began to change in the second period as the Flyers began working on getting more pressure near the crease area and began getting more chances. But Nabokov would put on a spectacular show, stopping all 15 shots the Flyers would send at him, including a point blank glove save on Jaromir Jagr’s hard shot from the slot with Hartnell screening him in front and a ridiculous sprawling snow angel on a short- handed chance by Max Talbot after getting an on the tape feed from Giroux.

“(Nabokov) was reading the plays. He was there even before you tried to shoot it. Even when you go give and go cross ice pass, he was there,” Jagr said. “I don’t know if he’s that quick, or if he read it, but one time four on four I think Mez gave it to me and I thought for sure it was a goal, and he was there even before I shot it.”

The Flyers began more concentrated attacks on the Islanders zone in the third period with 16 shots on goal. But the game long theme of their difficulty getting second chances after their initial scoring attempts would not help their cause. Their most noteworthy opportunity came after Giroux stripped an Islander defenseman of the puck and attempted a deke that Nabokov stayed with all the way through.

The Flyers took some measured solace in knowing that they carried play in the final 40 minutes, only to have a red hot goaltender stymie them.

"Yeah, if we play like that we win a lot of games,” Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen said. “That is our hockey. We skate, we hit, we force other teams to turn the puck over and create some offense from there. We had some chances to put the puck in the net but obviously he made some nice couple saves and we couldn't get the other point. Like I said, the effort was there for a full 65 minutes and we have to keep doing the same things next few games and move forward.”

In the overtime, the Flyers tried to push the play in the opening minute, but after the Islanders Matt Moulson chance in the slot 1:15 into the overtime period, the road team really put on pressure, getting four shots to the Flyers one.

Frans Nielson and John Tavares would go on to find the back of the net in the shootout while Briere and Simmonds would find no more success in the skills competition portion of the program than they did earlier.

In short, Nabokov was sensational and Bryzgalov did his part in regulation and overtime, but the Flyers shootout issues cause their post All Star Game difficulties to continue.

*photo by Andrew King