PHILADELPHIA _ As much as they were stung by the lapses that allowed them to give up four second-period goals, those only made the ending that much sweeter for the Islanders.
The two-goal deficit allowed the Islanders to flex their resilient streak. They made a stirring comeback in the third period and beat the Flyers, 5-4, in overtime at Wells Fargo Center on Friday.
Nick Leddy scored on a feed from Josh Ho-Sang at 2:44 of the extra period to give the Islanders their fifth win in their past six games and cap off a wild afternoon against a team that is winless in its past seven.
Mathew Barzal's rare gift, Doug Weight said before the game, is his ability to get the puck to teammates in spots from which they can really do something with it. Witness the five assists he collected against the Avalanche Nov. 5. "Barz has that knack," the coach said.
This time, though, there was a reversal. It was the puck that found Barzal. With only 14.1 seconds left in the first period, Andrew Ladd swatted the puck out of the air and knocked it to Barzal, left of Brian Elliott's crease. The rookie center was able to get just enough on it to have it trickle into the net for a 1-0 lead _ and his sixth goal and 21st point of the season. It marked the fifth consecutive game in which he had registered at least one point.
While that broke the tie, it was not the first turning point. Credit for that went to Thomas Greiss, who stopped Nolan Patrick on a penalty shot at 17:01. Greiss earned the start with his string of four victories.
But the Flyers made things difficult for him in the second period. Really difficult. Four goals difficult.
At 3:49, after the Flyers stopped Johnny Boychuk's clearing attempt, Claude Giroux scored from the high slot. Philadelphia went ahead 2-1 after Shayne Gostisbehere's shot rang off the post and caromed directly to Wayne Simmonds, all alone, who drove it home at 6:28.
Which is not to say that momentum had found its home with the Flyers. Not yet, anyway. At 7:56, Cal Clutterbuck tipped in Dennis Seidenberg's left point shot to tie the score at 2. After that, the period was all Philadelphia. Gostisbehere scored on a delayed penalty situation at 12:11 to make the score 3-2, then only 19 seconds later, Sean Couturier got away from the Islanders defense and made it 4-2.
Then it was all Islanders. Jordan Eberle cut the deficit to 4-3 on a power play goal at 4:12 (after Greiss had stopped a short-handed breakaway), then Ladd tied it, slamming the puck home from short range at 12:11. Given where they had been at intermission, the Islanders had to be quite pleased with that turn of events.
