Call It A Valentine's Day Massacre

Islanders 1: Flyers 5

There was no love for the Islanders in Philadelphia today.

After showing some signs of life in the first seven minutes of the third period- time that produced the lone goal, by Andy Hilbert- the Isles got stung by their own lax play in the defensive zone and the offensive prowess of the Flyers, eventually going down at the Wachovia Center, while Martin Biron broke Ken Dryden's record amount of wins against the Isles (he now has 10).

Claude Giroux started off the scoring in the first, and 44 seconds later, Jeff Carter's shot was redirected by Scott Hartnell in front for a quick 2-0 lead. Then the Flyers stalled for a while, while the Islanders evened up the shot total, and in the second period, got more physical than they had been in the first. The Flyers didn't get any goals in that period, but neither did the Isles, although they did establish a decent forecheck, and what's more, neither team took a penalty.

It took until 6:15 of the third for the Isles to finally get on the board- Andy Hilbert fired one high glove side past Biron to cut the lead in half. Until that point, New York had been coming out hard against Philly, and it looked as though momentum was clearly in their favor. But as quickly as they had grabbed it, they let it slip away with some unlucky deflections in the defensive zone, and within 1:07, a 2-1 lead became a 5-1 lead. Matt Carle was credited with a goal that Chris Campoli accidentally banked off of his defense partner, Bruno Gervais, on a clearing attempt, and then a shot by Arron Asham went past Danis off of the stick of Radek Martinek. Lastly, Simon Gagne converted a penalty shot on a nice backhand-forehand move that got Danis moving to the left, leaving just enough space for Gagne to stuff it past him.

This loss is the Islanders' seventh at Philly, and their fifth in a row overall. It starts off a busy week in which they play Pittsburgh at home, then the Rangers, Carolina and New Jersey. (The Rangers game is at MSG.)

Notes: Mitch Fritz was back in the lineup, with Jeff Tambellini a healthy scratch (and honestly, if the coaching staff believes Fritz will be any help here then they are sorely mistaken, in my opinion, but then again I'm only the blogger in the room)... Tim Jackman dropped the gloves with Asham in the first period, just six seconds after the first Philly goal, and it ended with Asham putting him down... Danis made 29 saves.... Biron made 38 saves.