James van Riemsdyk recorded his first career hat trick and rookie Sergei Bobrovsky turned aside 35 shots as the Philadelphia Flyers skated to a 4-1 road triumph over the New York Islanders on Saturday in a battle of Atlantic Division rivals.

Jeff Carter netted his team-leading 34th goal of the season and All-Star Claude Giroux notched a pair of assists as Philadelphia (45-19-10) maintained its mastery of the Islanders. The Flyers have won 20 of their last 21 contests against their rivals.

Philadelphia improved to 5-0-4 in its last nine contests and extended its division lead to four points over the idle Pittsburgh Penguins (44-23-8). The Flyers also maintained their two-point lead over Washington for first in the Eastern Conference.

Carter and van Riemsdyk tallied 22 seconds apart in the first period to give the Flyers a quick 2-0 advantage.

The second overall pick of the 2007 draft, van Riemsdyk answered Blake Comeau's tally with 6:35 remaining in the session and capped the offensive explosion with a power-play goal midway through the third period.

Prior to his scoring outburst on Saturday, van Riemsdyk hadn't scored since March 5. The 21-year-old New Jersey native now has 19 goals on the season.

Bobrovsky kept the Islanders at bay to secure his fifth win in as many outings against the Islanders this season. The 22-year-old Russian has permitted a total of eight goals in those contests.

Rick DiPietro made his first start in a week and finished with 18 saves for New York (29-35-12), which has dropped five of its last seven games.