The Philadelphia Flyers were defeated by the New York Islanders, 4-3, in a preseason matchup at Xfinity Mobile Arena on Thursday evening. The deciding goal came with just under three minutes left in the third period, leaving the Flyers with one more game before concluding their 2025-26 preseason schedule.
Travis Sanheim opened the scoring for Philadelphia early in the first period while shorthanded. With Sean Couturier serving a tripping penalty, Christian Dvorak led a counterattack and passed to Sanheim, who scored past Islanders goaltender Ilya Sorokin.
The Islanders responded during a power play when Maxim Shabanov redirected a pass from Maxim Tsyplakov over Flyers goalie Samuel Ersson. Simon Holmstrom was credited with the secondary assist.
Travis Konecny restored the Flyers’ lead midway through the second period with help from Nick Seeler and Couturier. However, New York quickly tied it again as Anders Lee scored off an assist from Tsyplakov and Ryan Pulock.
Later in the period, Dvorak had another shorthanded opportunity but was stopped by Sorokin. The Islanders then took advantage of a turnover during a Flyers power play; Jean-Gabriel Pageau set up Adam Pelech for a shorthanded goal to give New York its first lead of the night.
Philadelphia answered less than a minute later on that same power play. Tyson Foerster connected with Noah Cates after receiving a pass from Cam York, resulting in Cates scoring to tie it at 3-3 going into the third period.
The game remained even until Emil Heineman scored for New York late in regulation on a transition rush assisted by Anthony DuClair and Mathew Barzal.
Flyers coach Rick Tocchet used several lineup combinations throughout the night. Nikita Grebenkin created multiple chances early in his effort to secure his spot on the roster. On defense, Adam Ginning contributed key plays along the boards and participated regularly on penalty kills, though he was involved in coverage during New York’s winning goal. Tocchet noted that Egor Zamula “needs to pick his game compared to his last couple outings.”
The line of Owen Tippett, Trevor Zegras and Matvei Michkov did not produce offensively after showing promise during practice earlier in the week.
Goaltender Samuel Ersson made several important saves, particularly in the first period and against Barzal late in regulation. However, he conceded three goals on twelve shots during the second frame; two were described as difficult to stop due to deflections or odd-man rushes.
On special teams, Philadelphia negated an earlier shorthanded goal against them by scoring with their second power-play unit—their only man-advantage opportunity of the contest—and successfully killed two out of three penalties faced.
