Ivan Fedotov, welcome to the never-say-die Flyers.

Nearly eight years after the goalie was drafted, he made his debut 20 minutes into a game that could only be described as a must-win for a multitude of reasons. The Flyers waited until 9.6 seconds were left in the third period to tie things up and give him his first taste of overtime. But 84 seconds into the extra session, Brock Nelson scored to give the Islanders a 4-3 win.

With the point they earned, the Flyers moved into third place in the Metropolitan Division as the Washington Capitals were off on Monday. With their win, the Islanders moved four points back of the Flyers, with two games in hand.

Fedotov entered the game to start the second period and immediately looked cool and calm in net. His first action as the Flyers goalie was playing the puck behind the net and he didn’t make his first NHL save until 4 minutes, 21 seconds into the period when he turned aside an easy shot by Mathew Barzal.

The Russian netminder did allow the go-ahead goal in the second period, a nifty deflection in front by Islanders captain Anders Lee but there wasn’t much he could do to stop that one.

Across 40 minutes of action, the rookie squared up to shooters, stopped Barzal on a breakaway while flashing the leather, and made key stops to keep the Flyers in it until the end. He stopped 19 of 21 shots but it was too little too late.

Things did start out well for the Flyers who entered the game on a four-game losing streak, during which they were outscored 19-8. Noah Cates notched the first goal of the night, something that eluded the Orange and Black in each of the past two games. After Robert Bortuzzo batted down the puck with his glove in the neutral zone, Cates corralled the bouncer around Brock Nelson. He skated into the Islanders’ zone and snapped the puck through a Mike Reilly screen to end a 14-game goal drought.