UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) – Simon Gagne scored his NHL-leading 22nd and 23rd goals – including the winner with 7:13 left – and the Philadelphia Flyers rallied to beat the New York Islanders 4-3 Tuesday night.

Gagne, who also assisted on Joni Pitkanen’s goal, took a pass in front from Jon Sim and beat Garth Snow to give Philadelphia its only lead.

New York nearly tied it with 0.2 seconds left, but a video review revealed the puck didn’t go in.

The Flyers, who trailed 2-0 after the first period, played without injured forwards Peter Forsberg and Keith Primeau but split the home-and-home series. Philadelphia has defeated the Islanders three times in four games.

The Islanders are 4-1 in their last five road games, including a win Saturday at Philadelphia, but they’ve dropped three straight at home.

Robert Esche stopped 20 shots and allowed fewer than four goals for the first time five games. He had dropped three straight decisions and didn’t play in four of Philadelphia’s previous six contests.

Patrick Sharp scored the Flyers’ other goal.

Miroslav Satan, Jason Blake and Mark Parrish had goals for the Islanders, who also led 3-1. Snow started for the second straight game and made 31 saves.

Sharp brought Philadelphia within 2-1 at 9:51 of the second with his fourth goal, all scored against the Islanders. He had a goal in Philadelphia’s 5-1 win over New York on Oct. 15 and then netted two in another Flyers’ 3-2 home victory on Nov. 10.

After Parrish stretched New York’s lead back to two goals with a power-play score just 1:40 later, Pitkanen converted a perfect pass from Gagne during a man advantage to make it 3-2 with 5:26 left in the period.

Gagne then tied it with Philadelphia’s third goal of the period, scored with the teams skating 4-on-4.

Kim Johnsson took a pass from Gagne and fired a shot that caught Snow high. Gagne charged in for the rebound and smacked the puck in to tie at 3 with 1:14 remaining.

The Flyers still had 2:12 of power-play time at the start of the third but couldn’t take further advantage.

New York made the most of its early chances, scoring twice on five shots in the first and then another on its ninth shot.

Satan gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead at 11:53 with his 13th goal. Standing alone in the left circle, he raised his stick and called for the puck. Janne Niinimaa flipped it to him, and Satan deflected the puck out of the air and on a bounce past Esche.

Blake made it 2-0 with 2:05 left in the period on a power play. It was Blake’s fourth goal in two games against the Flyers as he had a hat trick in New York’s 4-2 road victory Saturday. He has six goals and 10 points in seven games.

Parrish scored the Islanders’ second power-play goal when he deflected in Brent Sopel’s shot while standing unchecked in front at 11:31. It was only the third goal scored by the right winger in 14 games.

Notes: Forsberg missed his second straight game with a groin injury. He is expected to skate Wednesday and is questionable for that night’s home game against New Jersey. … The Islanders recalled C Wyatt Smith and Sean Bergenheim from Bridgeport of the AHL to fill in for injured forwards Oleg Kvasha (ankle) and Shawn Bates (hamstring). Kvasha was injured Saturday at Philadelphia.

AP-ES-11-29-05 2142EST


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.