NEW YORK -- Brandon Manning's first NHL goal Monday night moved the Philadelphia Flyers another step closer to making the last game of the regular season a meaningful one.

Manning's goal with 6:59 left in the second period snapped a tie and went down as the game-winner as the Flyers continued to tighten the Eastern Conference wild card race with a 4-1 win over the New York Islanders at Barclays Center.

"It's been a long time coming," Manning said of his milestone goal, which came in his 66th NHL game.

The same could be said for the Flyers' surge into the playoff race.

Nick Cousins scored earlier in the second period while Sam Gagner and Claude Giroux scored in the third as Philadelphia (35-24-12) moved within one point of the idle Detroit Red Wings for the second and final wild-card spot in the East and within three points of the Islanders for the first wild card.

The Flyers have gone 11-3-2 since Feb. 16, when they began play nine points behind the Red Wings and eight points behind the Islanders.

"Our team has played well over the last 30 games," Flyers head coach Dave Hakstol said. "We've known all the way along that we've got a tough battle to get above the line in the playoffs. Guys are having fun, they're working hard. There's a goal in mind."

Four of the Flyers' final five games are against the Penguins, Red Wings or Islanders -- including the very last game on the NHL regular-season calendar on April 10, when Philadelphia visits the Islanders in the makeup of a game postponed by a blizzard on Jan. 23.

"They're all big hockey games for us right now," Manning said. "I think the biggest thing is we control our own destiny."

That's the same message Islanders head coach Jack Capuano is delivering to his skidding team. New York (38-24-9) has lost four straight (0-3-1) and six of seven (1-4-2) to fall out of second place in the Metropolitan Division.

With Monday's loss, the Islanders fell five points behind the second-place New York Rangers and remained three points behind the third-place Penguins. The Islanders have two games in hand on the Rangers and one on the Penguins.

"If you're a player on this club right now and you look at the standings, you have a chance," Capuano said. "And that's what you want in the last 10, dozen games that you have left. Some teams don't have a chance. You put yourself in that position to have a chance."

To capitalize on their chance, the Islanders will have to snap out of an offensive funk. Kyle Okposo scored the lone goal Monday for New York, which has scored three goals or fewer in eight straight games and 13 of the last 16 games.

"You just hope that some of the guys that are struggling now can find their way here in the last few games that we have," Capuano said.

After a scoreless first period, Cousins and Okposo traded goals during a 90-second span early in the second period. Manning's goal came at the end of a coast-to-coast rush and bounced off the top post and past Thomas Greiss.

"Huge goal," Gagner said. "That changes the tide of things and allows us to settle into our game."

Gagner, stationed to the right of the net, put back a rebound of a shot by Sean Couturier 4:22 into the third. Giroux iced the game by scoring an empty netter with 26.1 seconds remaining,

Flyers goalie Steve Mason made 23 saves, including six in the first 3:20 of the game.

Greiss also had 23 saves for the Islanders.

NOTES: The Islanders scratched C Mikhail Grabovski (undisclosed), G Jaroslav Halak (lower body) and D Marek Zidlicky (upper body) as well as RW Steve Bernier, LW Eric Boulton and D Ryan Pulock. ... Islanders C John Tavares played in his 500th career game. He is the 27th player to play at least 500 games for the Islanders and the third to reach the milestone this season, after RW Josh Bailey and RW Kyle Okposo. ... The Flyers scratched G Michal Neuvirth (left knee) as well as D Evgeny Medvedev, C R.J. Umberger and C Jordan Weal. C Chris VandeVelde served the final game of a two-game suspension for elbowing Chicago Blackhawks C Jonathan Toews in the head last Wednesday. ... The Flyers signed D Reece Willcox to an entry-level contract Monday. Willcox was selected by the Flyers in the fifth round of the 2012 draft and recently concluded his senior season at Cornell.