For the second day in a row, Florida Panthers hosted the New York Islanders, and once again Robert Luongo was the man at the back for the Panthers with Thomas Greiss as the opposite minder for the Islanders.
Roberto Luongo made 41 saves in win over Isles – file photo by Lewis Bleiman
Luongo said he had to do better than he had the night before, where the Islanders had beaten the Panthers 5-4, a night where, despite letting in four goals, Greiss had stopped forty two shots compared to the twenty one stopped by Luongo.
They may not have managed to get the scoring off to such an early start, but the Panthers did manage to get the first goal, and well inside the first five minutes of the game.
A few passes in the Islanders zone, followed by a long pass down the ice. As it crossed the Panthers blue line, Erik Gudbranson was there to knock the puck back out, where it was picked up by Jonathan Huberdeau, and taken straight back to the Islanders zone. It looked like Huberdeau was going to take a shot as he crossed the blue line, but a quick pass across to Nick Bjugstad in space let him take a shot from space. Greiss was there to stop it, and kicked it away, but Reilly Smith was coming in fast and sent the rebound past Greiss and in to the net.
Florida picked up a penalty, Rocco Grimaldi tripped Ryan Strome, but the Panthers managed to hold off the Islanders.
Panthers found themselves a man down again, after Garrett Wilson tripped Shane Prince, but they once more killed off the penalty, and managed to hold the score until the buzzer signalled the end of the first.
Coming out in to the second, the Panthers didn’t let up, and Greiss was forced to make several saves.
Jussi Jokinen’s pass went all the way across the ice, and was picked up by Huberdeau on the far wing, he sent it round to the waiting Bjugstad behind the Islanders goal, and his pass out to Smith in the slot, meant Smith had all the time and space he needed to put it over Greiss’ glove, doubling the home team’s lead.
Luongo spent almost two minutes without a stick, as it got knocked out of his hand and in to the corner. When Erik Gudbranson retrieved it for him, the crowd cheered, but Luongo after the game said he didn’t mind not having it, and was confident enough to be able to close any gaps.
Play continued apace, with both teams attacking hard, and as ever in play off hockey, tension was high. Ninety seconds before the second break, a scuffle broke out, making the penalty boxes quite crowded. Casey Cizkas’ roughing against Aaron Ekblad earning him a double penalty, and having to take Smith to the box with him. Some of the other players got involved, meaning Cal Clutterbuck and Matt Martin joined Cizkas and Smith in the sin-bin, and on the Florida side Derek MacKenzie and Shawn Thornton went with Wilson for a sit down.
The third period was a battle between the two teams, with the Panthers clinging to their 2-0 lead. Not long after the break, Panthers gave the Islanders another power play, but once again the Florida side were up to the challenge, and Luongo kept his clean sheet.
With the amount of shots the Islanders were getting on the Panthers goal, it was only a matter of time before one slipped past Luongo, and with just over three and a half minutes to go, New York managed it.
Kyle Okposo had the puck in the corner, behind the Panthers goal. His long pass to Nick Leddy was smashed back towards the goal, but went wide. The force of the shot caused the puck to bounce back off the boards, and it dropped in front of John Tavares, who managed to lift it over the leg of Luongo and finally get a goal for the visitors.
With about fifteen seconds left to go, Greiss had left the ice to get an extra skater on to try and take the game to overtime, when a face off in front of the Panthers net was won by Aleksander Barkov, and the puck was hooked out to Dmitri Kulikov, who took a long shot at the empty net and got to see it slide right in between the posts.
The two teams will now get a day off, as they travel to New York for game three on Sunday with the series tied 1-1.
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