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Hat trick from van Riemsdyk leads Flyers over Isles

Mar 27, 2011 - 4:19 AM Uniondale, NY (Sports Network) - James van Riemsdyk recorded his first career hat trick to fuel Philadelphia's 4-1 victory over the New York Islanders at Nassau Coliseum.

"It was definitely pretty cool," van Riemsdyk said of the outpouring of support from Philadelphia fans who threw hats on the ice after his third goal of the game. "It shows that the Flyers fans care enough to show their support for us (on the road). Every goal there were a lot of fans who cheered and it makes me proud to wear the jersey every night."

Jeff Carter added a goal and one assist for the Flyers, who snapped a two-game losing skid and opened up a four-point margin over idle second-place Pittsburgh in the Atlantic Division.

Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 36-of-37 shots for Philadelphia, which reached the 100-point plateau for the first time since 2005-06 and maintained its two- point lead over Washington (100-98) in the race for the top seed in the Eastern Conference. The Capitals shut out the Canadiens in Montreal.

Blake Comeau picked up the lone score for the Islanders, who have lost two in a row and five of their last seven.

Rick DiPietro allowed all four scores on 22 shots.

Carter took an early holding penalty but atoned for his mistake at 8:11 of the opening period, when he one-timed a rolling puck off a left-circle faceoff win by Claude Giroux.

Just 22 seconds later, van Riemsdyk beat his checker along the right wing and fired a low shot on DiPietro, but the New Jersey native slid the rebound through the five-hole for a 2-0 game.

New York got on the board at 10:28, when Josh Bailey hit Bobrovsky with a high shot and Comeau potted the bouncing rebound at the left post with a backhand.

The Flyers went up 3-1 with 6:35 left in the first when Andrej Meszaros' miss from the right point bounced right out to van Riemsdyk on the left side for an easy tap-in.

Bobrovsky did the splits and robbed Kyle Okposo with the glove in front six minutes into the second period to thwart a 2-on-none break. He stopped 15 shots in all and helped the Flyers kill two short-handed situations to preserve the visitors' two-goal edge.

"The one thing that we could have done a little better was just trying to bear down on those second and third opportunities," Comeau said about his club's attack throughout the contest. "It seemed like there were a lot of pucks in the crease that we just didn't get to."

Van Riemsdyk capped his trifecta at the 9:15 mark of the third period on a power play, when his shot from the slot ticked off an Islanders stick and rolled through DiPietro's pads for a 4-1 Flyers edge.

"I've been waiting to get a shot like that off on a power play and I got a really lucky bounce," van Riemsdyk said of his final goal of the contest. "I shot it as hard as I could and it went off someone's stick on the way in, so I got some good bounces today."

Game Notes

Philadelphia has beaten the Islanders in 20 of the last 21 meetings overall, including all five this season...The victory ties the Flyers' franchise record for most road wins in a season with 24, first set in 2002-03...Giroux notched two assists....These clubs meet for the final time in their respective regular-season finales at Philadelphia on April 9...This was the 18th time in Flyers history the club reached the 100-point mark, and the fastest (74 games) since taking 73 contests to hit 100 points in 1985-86...Scott Hartnell was the last Flyers player to score three times on DiPietro, back on January 19, 2008 in a 5-3 Philly win.