In Uniondale, it was hardly worth the propane to send the Zamboni around the rink on Wednesday night, in the third intermission.
Anthony Beauvillier scored OT winner for the New York Islanders in Game 6
The New York Islanders’ Anthony Beauvillier potted the game-winner 68 seconds of fresh ice used in the extra session for a 3-2 win in Game 6, tying the series with the Tampa Bay Lightning at 3-3.
“I honestly kind of blacked out a little bit,” Beauvillier said. “They turned the puck over, I think, and then I saw it go in and kind of blacked out. I was just so happy, I was screaming, and everyone kind of jumped on me. Obviously, an amazing feeling and I couldn’t be more happy.”
Semyon Varlamov made 22 saves to help the Isles get even and remove the stink from their 8-0 loss in Game 5.
“I love this group, the character of this group, and I would say this building and what it’s meant to a number of players, but probably more than anything, our fans,” New York head coach Barry Trotz said.
It wasn’t easy. Brayden Point scored his 14th of the playoffs in the first period to give the Bolts a 1-0 lead.
The goal came at 16:02 of the first and seemed to deflate the Isles who had the better of the play in the opening 20 minutes.
“Listen, we battled hard,” Tampa Bay’s Steven Stamkos said. “We were short from the beginning. We played a [heck] of a game to get up 2-0. We knew they were going to push. It’s two good teams going at it at the best time of the year. For the most part, I thought we played pretty solid.
“It’s over with. We didn’t get the job done tonight, but we get to go back in front of our fans and get the job done there. It was an entertaining game and we’ve got to go home and get the job done.”
Anthony Cirelli added to New York’s concern with a goal just past the midway point of the second period for a 2-0 lead.
Game 7 is set for Tampa on Friday night.
The Islanders finally got a break when Jordan Eberle broke through on a wicked backhander from the high slot to get New York within one.
“It was 2-1 going into third period, so we knew we had a chance to win this game or tie the game in the third period,” Varlamov said. “We came out really hard and we had a really strong third period, a strong forecheck and then that’s why I think we scored the goal. We created a lot of scoring chances in the third, and it paid off in the end.”
The Islanders were scoreless in three chances on the power play; Tampa went 0-for-2.
“We’ve got a lot of guys that have played a lot of playoff games and have come back from losses or different situations,” Point said. “We’ve got a veteran leadership group in there that kind of keeps our head level. I don’t know if a lot of guys have played a lot of Game 7s, but we’re just going to try to take it as one game. It’s do or die for both teams and it’s going to be an intense one.”
Scott Mayfield tied the game, 2-2, and forced the brief extra session with an equally wicked writer from the right side that rose and caught iron before bending the net.
The Beauvillier goal was unassisted after stealing the puck from Blake Coleman, to the right of the Lightning cage. His quick wrist shot found the upper right corner of the net.
Point now has a nine-game goal scoring streak.
Eberle’s goal ended the Isles drought at 116:23.”Even though we were down 2-0, for the most part we liked our game, even in the first and the second,” Eberle said. “But we just couldn’t find it and finally found one and then took it into the third, and then Scotty with the great shot.”.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves in the loss.
“We played 56 games without him,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “Usually, we have 12 forwards when we play without him, so that probably made it tougher on us when we had 11. But we’ve gone down this path for four months. It’s nothing new for us.”
Two of the goals against were targeted for the upper corner of the net. Eberle’s backhander found the net to the left of Vasilevskiy.
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