The Philadelphia Flyers squandered a pair of one-goal leads Tuesday night but at least managed to salvage a point in a game that may end up having playoff implications.
The New York Islanders could take no such solace in their most recent defeat.
A pair of teams trying to hang on in the Eastern Conference wild-card race will meet Thursday night when the Flyers meet the Islanders in Elmont, N.Y.
Both teams were off Wednesday following defeats Tuesday night. The Flyers fell to the host Columbus Blue Jackets 3-2 in a shootout, and the Islanders began a seven-game homestand with a 2-0 loss to the Ottawa Senators.
Owen Tippett scored 8:13 into the third period to give the Flyers a 2-1 lead, but Zach Werenski tied the game a little more than seven minutes later before Kent Johnson and Kirill Marchenko collected goals in the shootout as the Blue Jackets prevented Philadelphia from gaining ground in the playoff chase.
With the win, the Blue Jackets (48 points) maintained sole possession of the second wild card. The Flyers, Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins all have 44 points — and they also trail the Senators (47 points) and the Montreal Canadiens (46 points).
The loss ended a two-game winning streak for the Flyers, who were trying to sweep a back-to-back set after overcoming a two-goal first period deficit Monday in a 4-3 win over the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. Philadelphia’s two longest winning streaks of the season were both three games.
“We put a lot of gas in our game (Monday) night,” Flyers coach John Tortorella said after the Tuesday defeat. “Frustrating for me because we had a chance to win this one. We (gave) it away a little bit at the end, but we’ll just take the point and go.”
The frustration ran even deeper for the Islanders, whose season-high three-game winning streak ended as they slipped seven points behind the Blue Jackets and six points behind the Senators. New York is in last place in the Metropolitan Division and in 15th place in the Eastern Conference, ahead of only the Buffalo Sabres.
The Islanders were outshot 27-24 on Tuesday as their familiar offensive woes continued. New York was scoreless in its lone power-play opportunity as its streak of games without a power-play goal reached 14 — the longest such run in team history. The team is 0-for-25 with the man advantage during the drought.
The Islanders, whose winning streak consisted of road victories over the Boston Bruins, Vegas Golden Knights and Utah Hockey Club, scored one goal or fewer Tuesday for the 14th time this season.
“We have to respond to this — I mean, the position we were in, winning three in a row, had a chance to go for four in a row, I think we should have been more hungry,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. “We should have had more urgency than what we did. Sometimes, you have to dig (for) those ones, and for some reason, we did not.”
