NEW YORK – Brandon Manning's first NHL goal midway through the second period snapped a tie and powered the Philadelphia Flyers to a 4-1 win over the New York Islanders on Monday night.
Nick Cousins, Sam Gagner and Claude Giroux also scored for Philadelphia, which won for the 10th time in 13 games. The surging Flyers closed within one point of Detroit for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Philadelphia trails the Islanders by three points for the first wild card. The Flyers are 2-1-0 against New York this season, with one game remaining.
Steve Mason made 23 saves for Philadelphia.
The Islanders have lost five of six at a most inopportune time. They fell to 21-9-4 in their first season at Barclays Center, after spending the franchise's first 43 years at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Long Island. The Islanders finish the regular season by playing seven of their final 11 games in Brooklyn.
Kyle Okposo scored for New York, and Thomas Greiss stopped 21 shots.
Cousins opened the scoring at 2:24 of the second period with his sixth of the season. He outdueled Thomas Hickey at the front of the net before tapping in the rebound of Jake Voracek's shot into an half-empty net.
Okposo tied it 90 seconds later with his 20th of the season. The pending unrestricted free agent jammed a loose puck under Mason to reach 20 goals for the third time in his NHL career.
Philadelphia regained the lead when Manning beat Greiss high to the glove side, moments after the Flyers had successfully killed his 2-minute minor for cross-checking Johnny Boychuk.
The Flyers had an opportunity to expand their lead moments later, but Gagner's snap shot from the slot hit the post.
Mason's stop on Nikolay Kulemin at the doorstep with 2:31 left in the period kept Philadelphia in the lead.
Gagner scored his eighth goal at 4:22 of the third to make it 3-1. Mason had to make two stops on Josh Bailey before Ryan Strome's attempt hit the post with less than 10 minutes left. Giroux added an empty-net goal with 26.9 seconds left.
NOTES: Both teams were scoreless on the power play. ... Islanders captain John Tavares played in his 500th NHL game. New York selected Tavares with the first pick in the 2009 draft. ... Philadelphia goalie Michal Neuvirth missed his second straight game with a lower-body injury. . The Flyers scratched Evgeny Medvedev, R.J. Umberger, Chris Vandevelde and Jordan Weal. . New York did not have Mikhail Grabovski and Jaroslav Halak due to injuries. Halak sat out his seventh straight with a lower-body injury, while Grabovski missed his third game even though he is considered day to day. . Steve Bernier, Eric Boulton, Ryan Pulock and Marek Zidlicky were the Islanders' scratches. . Miss USA, Olivia Jordan, was among the 14,329 in attendance.
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