From the jump the Islanders went right to work, registering the first three shots on goal as Carter Hart was forced to hold down the fort early.
After a nice response from the Flyers’ second line the Islanders would strike first on the scoreboard just under six minutes in. Andy Greene used a screen in front of Hart to give the Islanders a 1-0 lead with his first goal of the postseason.
Greene opens the scoring through traffic after the Flyers can’t win a battle along the boards. pic.twitter.com/mHXYhsWk3k
— Ryan Gilbert (@RGilbertSOP) August 24, 2020
Not the best start after what we saw against the Canadiens in the first round!
Kevin Hayes had a brilliant chance to even things up on a breakaway but Semyon Varlamov snuffed out the move following a great lead pass from Travis Konecny.
If we were expecting this series to be any different than the previous one, you’d have been hard-pressed to confirm that, with the Flyers being badly outshot and outplayed in the first 15 minutes and relying on Hart to stand on his head to keep things from getting out of hand.
Already controlling things the Islanders would earn the first power play of the series and game with Derek Grant off for interference to give the Isles a late period power play. But Greene’s point blast would be the lone tally in a first period won handily by the Isles.
The Flyers would wrestle back some early momentum via the penalty kill to start the second and Jakub Voracek would test Varlamov with a rising, hard slap shot . Varlamov had the answer there and a couple more in the first half of the period with dandy saves on Claude Giroux and Hayes to follow.
That would be the theme of the period as Varlamov snuffed out the Flyers’ pressure as they even up shots at one point with a good flurry but unable to pierce the Isles’ netminder.
Though the Flyers couldn’t capitalize on their much better period of play, they still kept things close with Greene’s first period tally still being the only mark on the scoreboard through 40 minutes with the Islanders holding to a tenuous 1-0 lead.
The Islanders’ forecheck would pay dividends early in the third as they forced a turnover behind the Flyers net and Jean-Gabriel Pageau buried his fifth goal of the postseason to make it 2-0 less than three minutes in.
Already up against it with the very defensively capable Islanders up two goals, Anders Lee would dig the Flyers’ hole even deeper with 11:10 left in regulation.
With that it was 3-0 Islanders as the Flyers quickly moved into trying to break a scoreless night to have something to feel good about heading into Game 2. Alain Vigneault emptied the Flyers’ net with around eight minutes left hoping for a miracle, but instead was treaded to a Devon Toews goal from his own blue line — as if you needed any more proof that this wasn’t the Flyers’ night.
Oh hey the Flyers finally got a power play with less than six minutes remaining! No, they didn’t score.
And no, they wouldn’t score at all as the Islanders took this one by a final of 4-0 to take Game 1 in the series as the Flyers looked just as bad — if not worse — than they did in round one.
Yikes.
