In Tampa, the New York Islanders had a glorious opportunity to pick up standings points on their rivals in the Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference playoff races.
On Saturday, they yacked up a 4-1 loss to the Lightning, when they could have closed in on the second wild card in the East, and third in the Metro.
It started well enough. Kyle Palmieri scored at 2:25 of the first period to stake the Isles to a 1-0 lead.
The problem was, that was the lone strike for the Islanders as the Lightning reeled off four unanswered goals for the win.
“Every night there’s two points up for grabs and they’re huge points for us,” Cirelli said. “Step one is getting to the playoffs. We know how big these points are, so I think it’s just us going into each and every game like we need a win.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves in the win.
Tampa moved to 41-25-7, and stretched their point streak to nine games, 8-0-1.
After the Isles took the lead, Darren Raddysh knotted the game, 1-1, scoring off the power play at 14:25.
Cirelli potted his first of the game 25 seconds later to give the Lightning a 2-1 lead.
“I think we had a phenomenal start against a team that had a really big win against [the Florida Panthers on Thursday],” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “We came out in the first period and did what we had to do. Now, in saying that, I thought their goalie played exceptional. It took us a while to score, but it was a big moment for us to come out of that period with the lead.”
The Islanders dropped to 31-27-15 off their eighth loss in 10 games.
“We didn’t have a good start, that’s for sure,” Islanders coach Patrick Roy said. “They jumped on us right away. We didn’t handle the puck well in the first. I am happy the way we responded in the second and third periods. We had chances in the second period, a lot of good looks. Their goalie made some great saves.”
In the third, Steven Stamkos collected his 30th of the season with 21 seconds gone in the frame for a 3-1 lad.
“It was nice to get that insurance goal pretty early,” Stamkos said. “I was pretty confident it wasn’t a high stick…nice to see that one go in, just the timing of the goal to give us a two-goal cushion there.”
Cirelli collected his double at 17:14, hitting an empty net for the 4-1 final count on the scoreboard. 
Semyon Varlamov made 36 saves in the loss.
“We have no choice but to turn the page,” Islanders forward Anders Lee said. “The way we competed and generated chances in the final 40 (minutes), those will start going in for us.”
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