Flyers Fall To Islanders

Garth Snow is making a bid for more playing time with the New York Islanders.

Making only his fourth start of the season, Snow had 33 saves in the Islanders' 2-0 victory over Philadelphia on Thursday night and was rarely tested in registering his first shutout of the season, 13th of his career and second against the Flyers, one of his former teams.

"It's always fun to play here," said Snow, who is 2-5-0 lifetime against Philadelphia. "But tonight's game is not going to mean a whole lot unless we win again tomorrow. We have a tough stretch of three games in four nights and we need to come out of that on the plus side."

It was also Snow's first shutout since Jan. 21 at Chicago, while with Pittsburgh.

"The coach is showing confidence in me by playing me against New Jersey, and here tonight, and against a couple of other tough teams," Snow said. "But I just like to play. I can't control what the coach does, but when I'm given the ball, I'm going to run with it."

Mariusz Czerkawski scored twice to help snap a four-game winless streak (0-2-2) for the Islanders, who are tied with the New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs for the Eastern Conference lead with 37 points.

Snow almost lost his shutout with 33.7 seconds left in the third period, but officials ruled that an apparent power-play goal by John LeClair had been directed into the net by his hand.

"The Islanders tightened their defense up a little bit more tonight," Flyers captain Keith Primeau said. "But we missed a lot of good scoring chances."

Roman Cechmanek made 28 saves for the Flyers, who outshot their opponents 82-35 in their previous two games -- including a 3-2 victory at New York on Tuesday night.

Czerkawski scored his eighth and ninth goals of the season to give the Islanders a 2-0 lead in the first period.

After scoring from the far left circle at 4:10, Czerkawski tipped a shot by Oleg Kvasha into the net at 17:48. Kvasha, who picked up assists on both goals, started the play by kicking the puck away from Philadelphia's Keith Primeau, who failed on a back-handed clearing attempt.

It was the Islanders' first shutout over Philadelphia since Ron Hextall blanked his former team, 2-0, in 1994.

"Snow played such a phenomenal game," Islanders coach Peter Laviolette said. "He has practiced hard every day."

Game notes:
The Islanders are unbeaten in 14 games (12-0-2) when leading after two periods. ... Kvasha's first assist was the 50th of his NHL career. ... Ruslan Fedotenko played in his 100th game as a Flyer. ... The Flyers have still allowed the fewest goals (57) in the NHL. ... Philadelphia had lost only twice in its last 12 home games against the Islanders (8-2-2).

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Author: 6 - ABC, Action News