NEW YORK - Michael Raffl scored the tiebreaking goal early in the second period and added two assists to lead the Philadelphia Flyers to a 5-2 victory over the New York Islanders on Sunday night.
Evgeny Medvedev, Shayne Gostisbehere, Scott Laughton and R.J. Umberger also scored for the Flyers, who trailed 2-0 midway through the first period. Michal Neuvirth stopped 15 shots in the teams' season finale that was a game rescheduled from Jan. 23 due to a blizzard.
Nikolay Kulemin and Matt Martin scored for the Islanders, who finished with the Eastern Conference's top wild card and will face the Atlantic Division champion Florida Panthers in the first round of the playoffs.
The Islanders' loss gave the crosstown-rival Rangers third place in the Metropolitan Division and a first-round matchup with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Both the Flyers and Islanders had already secured postseason berths and sat their stars. The Islanders were without a multitude of players, including their top line of John Tavares, Kyle Okposo and Frans Nielsen. The Flyers, who will face Presidents' Trophy-winning Washington in the first round, sat forwards Wayne Simmonds and Claude Giroux, and defenseman Mark Streit.
Thomas Greiss started in goal for the Islanders and stopped seven of nine shots he faced in the first period. Christopher Gibson replaced him to start the second period and finished with 15 saves.
Raffl gave the Flyers the 3-2 lead as he took a centering pass from Laughton and wristed it past Gibson for his 13th at 6:38 of the second period.
The Islanders had a 5-on-3 for 17 seconds later in the second period, but couldn't take advantage.
Laughton scored on a snap shot from the left slot at 5:50 of the third to give Philadelphia a two-goal lead. Umberger capped the scoring with a power-play goal as he converted a rebound of Raffl's shot with 8:50 to go for his second of the season.
The Flyers finished 3 for 4 on the power play and the Islanders were 0 for 4.
Trailing 2-0 midway through the opening period, Gostisbehere got the Flyers on the board with a power-play goal with 8:45 left as he took a pass from Jakub Voracek and fired a shot through the five-hole on a screened Greiss for his 17th.
Just 7 seconds after a slashing penalty on Ross Johnston gave the Flyers a 5-on-3 advantage, they tied it as Medvedev sent a pass to the left side to Matt Read, who sent it back and Medvedev fired a one-timer through traffic for his fourth with 8 seconds left in the period.
Kulemin got the Islanders on the scoreboard first, taking a pass from Calvin de Haan, used some fancy stick work to get around two defenders and poke a backhand past Neuvirth for his ninth at 5:58.
Martin doubled the lead 3:21 later as he went toward the net and redirected a pass from Ryan Pulock past Neuvirth for his career-high 10th of the season. Pulock also had a secondary assist on Kulemin's goal for his first two career assists.
NOTES: The Islanders also scratched C Casey Cizikas, D Johnny Boychuk, D Brian Strait, D Nick Leddy, and G Jean-Francois Berube. D Travis Hamonic hasn't played since suffering an injury against Columbus on March 31, and C Anders Lee is out indefinitely with a broken fibula. ... Tavares finished the season leading the team in goals (33) and points (70), and Okposo was tops in assists (42). ... F Johnston was called up from Bridgeport of the AHL and made his NHL debut, a day after Brackin Kearns and Alan Quine were called up for their season debuts with New York. ... The teams split the first four games this season. The Islanders won 3-1 at home on Nov. 25 and 4-3 in a shootout at Philadelphia on Dec. 8. The Flyers won 4-0 at home on Jan. 9 and 4-1 here on March 21. ... The Flyers also sat C Sean Couturier and starting goalie Steve Mason. ... Simmonds led the Flyers with 32 goals, and Giroux was tops with 45 assists and 67 points.
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