PHILADELPHIA — The Flyers had been getting badly outshot, had rarely put together three strong periods in a game, and had used an ever-changing lineup heading into Saturday’s matchup at the Wells Fargo Center.
They were winning, but they were winning ugly, and Alain Vigneault knew it would catch up to them.
So Vigneault sent a message in an attempt to improve their five-on-five play and get his forwards to play a 200-foot game: He benched high-scoring Travis Konecny.
Vigneault is happy with the result, but probably would have preferred a different method.
The Flyers were soundly outplayed in the second and third period, but used Scott Laughton’s overtime goal to defeat the New York Islanders, 3-2.
Laughton skated from the right wing to inside and through the left circle before beating Semyon Varlamov with 1:44 left in overtime. Shayne Gostisbehere made a nice play in the defensive end and then set up the goal, collecting his 200th career assist.
Vigneault’s message was received in a strong first period. But his players fell into bad habits and were soundly outplayed over the last two-plus periods.
In the opening period, the Flyers’ forwards backchecked better than in any game this season, keying a 2-0 lead.
The Flyers controlled the opening period, but the Islanders dominated the second and got to within 2-1 when Jordan Eberle scored on a one-timer from deep inside the right circle, beating Carter Hart to the short side with 12:29 left in the stanza.
Eberle was left wide open and defensemen Travis Sanheim and Phil Myers both defended Adam Pelech after he skated behind the net, leaving the shooter uncovered.
A little over four minutes later, Scott Mayfield, a 6-foot-5, 220-pound defenseman, made it 2-2 from the top of the right circle, putting a shot through a maze of players and under Hart’s blocker.
A pair of perfectly executed give-and-goes produced first-period goals by Jake Voracek (from Claude Giroux) and Kevin Hayes (from James van Riemsdyk) to give the Flyers a 2-0 lead.
It was the first meeting between the teams since the Islanders won in the conference semifinals last year, four games to three. Voracek now has a six-game point streak and leads the Flyers with 10 points in nine games.
The Flyers entered Saturday night’s matchup with a 5-2-1 record despite the worst shot-differential — minus-10 per game — in the NHL. They had been averaging a league-low 23.8 shots per game while allowing 34.1 shots, the NHL’s second-highest figure.
In other words, they were recording wins because of mostly good goaltending, opportunistic scoring, and solid power-play production — and not because of their way-too-inconsistent five-on-five play.
In last year’s Eastern Conference semifinals against the Flyers, the Islanders controlled a big portion of the seven games and allowed a total of just 16 goals. The Flyers scored three goals, total, in their four losses in the series.
The Isles’ defense was stifling again during portions of Saturday’s game. In one stretch that covered 18 minutes, 36 seconds over the first and second periods, New York held the Flyers to two shots. The Flyers were outshot by a 10-4 margin in the second, and they headed into the final period in a 2-2 tie.
At the end of regulation, the Flyers had been outshot, 25-8, since Hayes’ first-period goal, and only Hart’s strong play kept the game tied. Hart (26 saves) robbed Leo Komarov as he tried to finish an odd-man rush with 2:07 to go in regulation.
The Flyers were again badly outshot (28-17) but again won ugly, and now are on a three-game winning streak.
