Isles give up lead, but win at wire

NEW YORK » Mathew Barzal had two goals and an assist, including the go-ahead score after New York gave up a three-goal lead in the third period, and the Islanders beat the playoff-chasing Philadelphia Flyers 5-4 on Tuesday night.

John Tavares also scored twice and Anthony Beauvillier added a goal and two assists to help the Islanders get their third win in eight games, but just the fourth in their past 20 (4-12-4). Thomas Greiss stopped 27 shots.

Nolan Patrick had two goals and an assist, Claude Giroux added a goal and an assist, and Wayne Simonds also scored for Philadelphia, which squandered a chance to move closer to clinching a playoff spot. Petr Mrazek finished with 32 saves while falling to 6-6-3 in 15 games since being acquired from Detroit.

The Islanders appeared to take control with a threegoal second period to take a 4-1 lead, but the Flyers — who were 5-0-3 in their previous eight — tied it with three goals in a nine-minute stretch of the third.

Barzal then regained the lead for New York just 28 seconds after Giroux tied it, as he was streaking to the net, got a pass from Beauvillier and beat Mrazek for the rookie’s 22nd of the season with 6:28 left.

*** Dave Hakstol wanted to stress that he had no issue with the way Scott Laughton has been playing of late, even though the fourth-line center has gone 20 games without a goal.

Laughton, who has 10 goals, 10 assists and a minus-10 rating on the season, might have seemed to need a little late-season push, even if Hakstol wouldn’t admit that.

But there was evidence to be seen in what Hakstol did with Laughton Saturday in a win over Boston; Laughton moving from center to left wing, with Jori Lehtera taking the center spot on that fourth line. It seemed to give Laughton energy in the offensive zone.

“It’s a little bit different look,” Hakstol said Tuesday just ahead of his team’s game against the Islanders at Barclays Center. “(Lehtera) is a little heavier body down low defensively. Laughts obviously brings more speed on the wing. So it’s a little bit different look.”

But upon second look, Laughton had to be surprised to see himself wearing the blue jersey as one of the extra forwards at Monday’s practice, then part of the healthy scratch list before the Islanders game Tuesday. Not that it’s any reason to be disappointed.

“I’m happy with his play,” Laughton said. “If you looked at it, he had two or three really good scoring chances. It’s not that we have healthy bodies and we’re going to need everybody . ... Through the final stretch here you need everybody to be successful.”

Part of the reason for the change is Hakstol felt he needed Michael Raffl back in the lineup. He had missed six games with an injury, and took the left wing spot Laughton had manned last game.

“Raff is a very important player and this is a means for us to have him re-enter the lineup,” Hakstol said. But he reiterated that it’s likely only a one-game miss for Laughton. Maybe. “I never make guarantees on lineups, but Laughts is playing well,” Hakstol insisted. “I’m happy with what he’s doing. He’s a very valuable player for us.”

As for the rest of that fourth line, Dale Weise remains a nightly healthy scratch due to recently improved play by Matt Read at right wing. Lehtera stayed at center Tuesday night.

It couldn’t have been easy for Laughton, unavailable for immediate comment, to swallow a healthy scratch, since he was one of only five Flyers who had played all 79 previous regular season games.

Perhaps Hakstol is just mixing and matching experimentally, in an effort to get some offense squeezed out of this fourth-line mix somehow.

“No, it’s not,” Hakstol said of the experimentation theory. “These points are too valuable. In Raff’s case he’s been out for a couple of weeks now and he’s a real important player to our team. So for him to come back into that spot with (Lehtera) ... he can play a very similar role. He’s capable of being very versatile. So he can play the role of a fourth-line winger well, he can take parts of the (penalty kill) and play a very similar role to Scotty Laughton.

“That’s the reasoning behind it but it’s definitly not experimentation.”

*** Wayne Simmonds has struggled of late, both offensively and defensively. One obvious bad moment came against the Bruins, with Simmonds failing to clear just prior to the game-tying goal being scored by Patrice Bergeron with less than four seconds left in regulation. Either way, Hakstol was supportive of Simmonds’ recent work.

“Nobody cares more than Simmer does,” Hakstol said. “Nobody takes more pride in those situations than Simmer does. I’ve liked his game; I talked a little bit about it over the last couple of weeks here. I’ve liked the way Simmer has been playing and the element that he’s bringing to our team.”