Philadelphia, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - Cal Clutterbuck tied the game late in the second period and then scored in the seventh round of the shootout to lift the New York Islanders over the Philadelphia Flyers, 3-2, on Thursday.
Mikhail Grabovski also lit the lamp in the second stanza for the Islanders, who snapped a three-game skid. Jaroslav Halak stopped 16-of-18 shots.
"Yeah it's huge. It's a great way to start off a road trip for us, and two points is huge," said Islanders center John Tavares. "It's big. We needed it and we got to keep it going now."
Nick Schultz and Chris VandeVelde scored for the Flyers, who had a four-game winning streak snapped. Steve Mason made 28 saves.
"Yeah definitely. We gave away that point tonight for sure," said Schultz.
Philadelphia announced during the first intermission that defenseman Kimmo Timonen will begin skating Friday. The 39-year-old has not played since being diagnosed with blood clots in his leg and lungs in his native Finland back in early August.
Timonen will skate by himself on Friday. It will mark the first time in eight months that the veteran has skated.
"Yeah we got drift of that he's going to start skating which is great," said Mason. "Obviously it's a scary thing he was dealing with the blood clots. He's been patient. It couldn't have been fun sitting around for I think it's been almost eight months now, something like that."
Trailing 2-0 midway through the second, the Islanders tied the game with two goals in the final 3:12 of the period.
Grabovski put the Islanders on the board at 16:48, beating Mason from the left circle. About two minutes later, Clutterbuck jammed home a rebound to make it 2-2.
Frans Nielsen beat Mason on the first shot of the shootout, but Wayne Simmonds scored on Philadelphia's last tying attempt in the third round. After Clutterbuck scored to start the seventh round, Halak stopped Sean Couturier to secure the victory.
The Islanders improved to 7-1 in shootouts this season, while the Flyers fell to 2-6.
Schultz scored off Vincent Lecavalier's pass from behind the net at the 5:43 mark of the first period.
VandeVelde gave Philadelphia a 2-0 lead at 11:38 of the second when his shot from the right circle got past Halak.
Game Notes
The Flyers had won three straight over the Islanders at home ... Each team went 0-for-1 on the power play ... Philadelphia center Scott Laughton and defenseman Nicklas Grossmann returned to the lineup Thursday. Laughton missed the previous seven games with a concussion, while Grossmann missed 10 contests with a shoulder injury ... Flyers defenseman Michael Del Zotto's six-game point streak ended.
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