Tampa Bay Lightning played host to the New York Islanders for their Stanley Cup game two, Saturday evening.
Islanders had Thomas Greiss in goal as he continued his uninterrupted Stanley Cup run. Ben Bishop was also back in goal for Lightning, after leaving the Tampa net and being replaced by Andrei Vasilevskiy half way through the last game.
Jack Capuano’s team seemed to struggle to build momentum, and even after an early power play Tampa looked the dominant team. This power play was given to them, after Ondrej Palat and Nick Leddy had a bump in front of the Islanders goal, which knocked Leddy off balance. The referees obviously wanted the teams to know they would be calling things tight, and Palat sat two minutes for interference.
Not only did Lightning kill off this penalty, they generated several good chances, however, Tampa killed off the penalty, and Palat returned to the ice with both teams still yet to get off the mark.
Casey Cizikas collided with Leddy on the Lightning blue line, and as soon as Tampa realised two of the Islanders were lay on the ice together, they went straight on the attack. Victor Hedman sent the puck out from deep in the Lightning defensive zone to Palat on the centre line. Palat took the puck down the wing, and when at the top of the faceoff circle a quick pass to Tyler Johnson who was one on one with Greiss saw Johnson perform some fancy stick work, before slotting it between Greiss’ legs.
A couple of minutes later, Ryan Callahan was chasing Kyle Okposo down the ice, and using his left hand to get his stick to the puck, he put his right hand on Okposo earning him a two minute holding penalty.
Once more, Tampa killed off the penalty, Callahan returned to the ice and the Lightning were still attacking hard. Valtteri Fippula took the puck in to the Islanders zone under pressure, and managed to dump the puck off to the middle, where it was picked up by Jonathan Drouin. Drouin took the puck to the side of the goal, and stuck it between Greiss’ legs, bagging himself his first Stanley Cup goal.
Tampa picked up a third penalty after Brian Doyle knocked the puck over the glass. As time was running out on the power play, the Islanders won a faceoff in the Lightning zone, Alan Quine sending the puck out to the blue line, to Thomas Hickey. Hickey wound up a shot, then stopped at the last minute, wrong footing the Lightning for a second, and that was all he needed to actually fire a shot in. A tiny deflection of the puck on its way through, earned Nikolay Kulemin the goal.
As the first period came to a close, the Islanders picked up their first penalty of the game, when Travis Hamonic cross checked Cedric Paquette, meaning the Lightning should have had a power play for the first two minutes of the second period. This, however, wasn’t the case, as just over a minute in Drouin tripped Clutterbuck, so there was four on four for almost a minute, followed by another Islanders power play for a minute.
After Marek Zidlicky was called up for interference against Alex Kilorn, Islanders managed to kill off the penalty, but soon after they received another when Clutterbuck interfered with Bishop in the Tampa goal.
During this time, Lightning had the puck going round and round the Islanders zone, Drouin sent it to Johnson, who sent it out to Hedman at the blue line. Hedman sent it towards the goal with such force, that Greiss barely had time to move as the puck shot past him.
Another penalty for each team, but no more goals, meant the Lightning headed to the dressing room for the second break, sitting happy with a 3-1 score line.
Six and a half minutes in to the third period, Jonathan Marchessault’s slash on Ryan Strome earned Marchessault a two minute penalty, and Strome picked up two minutes for roughing at the same time.
With three and a half left to play, Greiss headed off the ice with the puck in the corner at the other end of the ice. As he was half way to the bench, Jason Garrison dug the puck out, and sent it back to Johnson who went behind his own goal, and as he came out through the faceoff circle, his long shot went all the way through and straight in to the centre of the uncovered Islanders goal.
The final two minutes of the game, saw six players go to their respective penalty boxes as the tension of playoff hockey got the players blood running hot, but with all of the disruption and the second running out on the Islanders, Tampa Bay Lightning tied the series a game each, with their dominant 4-1 victory on home ice.
The two teams will be at the Barclays Centre in New York, Tuesday night, for game three of this series.
You must be logged in to post a comment.