Game 3 is one of the most important games in a seven game series. You always wanna be the team that gains a leg up in the series if you’re tied 1-1, or you really put the stranglehold on if you’re up 2-0. The Islanders and Flyers series has been really evenly matched so far and the Isles were the team that ultimately took game three to go up 2-1. Let’s see how we got there.
The Flyers would strike first in the 1st period. Tyler Pitlick received a great feed at the top of the left circle and rifled a quick wrister past Semyon Varlamov. That was a huge goal for the Flyers because the Islanders are almost impossible to play against when they have the lead. With some stellar play from Carter Hart, the Flyers would escape the first period with a 1-0 lead. If the Flyers have any hopes of truly going far, Hart will be one of the most important, if not the most important player for them to rely on and he was again looking sharp early in game three.
The second period would be a very different story on the ice. The Islanders had 15 shots on goal compared to the Flyers six. The isles came out flying and they would show this period that they wouldn’t be intimidated. The Isles scored twice and ended up taking a 2-1 lead going into the 3rd. How did that happen? Their glue guys showed up as Matt Martin and Leo Komarov came up huge.
Martin would score off one of the slickest passes in the playoffs so far from Mat Barzal and Komarov would slide a backhander past Hart in the dying seconds. The Islanders everyone had expected to show up had arrived. The Islanders are a team greater than the sum of their parts and it was great to see guys like Martin and Komarov score after how hard they work for this team.
The Flyers would need to come out flying in period to have any hope of getting the Islanders off their game. An early penalty would prove to be the final nail in the Flyers coffin this game as Anders Lee would slip a backhander past Hart for the Isles third goal of the game. The Flyers fought hard and had 12 shots in the 3rd compared to the isles’ 4 but it wasn’t enough as the Isles escaped third with the win and a 2-1 series lead.
My three stars:
Semyon Varlamov
Matt Martin
Mat Barzal
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