Flyers bounce back by beating Islanders

NEW YORK - The Flyers bounced back from Saturday's disappointing loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins and received a major offensive boost from an unlikely source.

Defenseman Brandon Manning broke a 1-1 tie in the second period with his first career NHL goal as the Flyers defeated the New York Islanders, 4-1, Monday night at the Barclays Center.

The Flyers crept closer to the final Eastern Conference playoff spot. They are within one point of the Detroit Red Wings for the second wild card. The Flyers own a game in hand on Detroit.

The slumping Islanders, who are 1-4-2 in their last seven games, own the first wild-card spot. They are just three points ahead of the Flyers, who now have 82 points. It also spoiled the 500th career game for Islanders captain John Tavares.

This was Manning's 66th career NHL game and his 45th this season.

"It's exciting," he said about his first goal. "I mean, to be able to contribute in a game like this, we're making a big push to make the playoffs."

Manning's goal came with 6 minutes, 59 seconds left in the second period. He was just coming out of the penalty box and beat Thomas Greiss on a wrist shot from the left circle.

The play began when Flyers goalie Steve Mason had made an outstanding diving save and defenseman Andrew MacDonald eventually sent a long clearing pass that found Manning, who scored over the glove hand of Greiss.

"I just came out of the penalty box and got a lucky bounce off the ref and had a bit of ice," Manning said. "I noticed no one was with me, so I just tried to put the puck on net. I don't know if it went off the guy's stick, but it was a good feeling for sure."

With 17:36 left in the second period, the Flyers opened the scoring when Jake Voracek fed Nick Cousins in front of the net. Cousins converted the pass for his sixth goal of the season.

The Islanders tied it up a minute and 20 seconds later when Kyle Okposo, positioned in front of the net, was able to take several swats at the puck and finally got it past Mason for his 20th goal.

With 15:38 left in the third period, the Flyers took a 3-1 lead when Sean Couturier somehow sent a pass through traffic in front of the net and Sam Gagner poked it in for his eighth goal of the season and sixth in his last 14 games. Michael Raffl kept the puck in the zone and made a nice feed to Couturier.

Gagner had been applying pressure all game, and in the second period he hit the post on a shot that Greiss never saw.

With the Islanders trailing, 3-1, Ryan Strome hit the post in a scramble in front of the net.

Flyers captain Claude Giroux, who was 18 of 23 on faceoffs (78 percent) ended the scoring with an empty-net goal.

In the game's first 30 seconds, Mason stopped Nikolay Kulemin on a breakaway and set the tone for an evening of big saves.

"You've got to come up with a big save early on like that and it is something to build off of and it was nice to come up with a big save early," Mason said.

The Islanders came out blazing and took the game's first six shots, but Mason kept them in the game and the Flyers settled down during a scoreless first period.

"The first three-and-a-half minutes though that first [penalty kill] for him to get us through the start was real critical for us," Flyers coach Dave Hakstol said.

Mason knows he will be depended on heavily down the stretch, especially with Michal Neuvirth out for three weeks with a lower body injury. CSNphilly.com reported that Neuvirth had a meniscus tear in his left knee and could play in the playoffs but is out for the regular season.

"We don't comment on injuries," general manager Ron Hextall said. "It is a lower body injury and he is out three weeks."

mnarducci@phillynews.com

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