If there had been any semblance of a crowd at Roger’s Place in Edmonton Sunday night, the building would have been as empty as a COVID19-quaranrtined arena after the midway point of the middle frame.
By that mark of the game clock, the Tampa Bay Lightning held a 5-1 advantage over the New York Islanders in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final.
Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov collected five points each in the win with Point scoring twice and Kucherov once.
“Things are going well right now, but it’s our team,” Point said. “We’re playing so well. We’re playing with structure, we’re playing responsible with the puck, we’re making the right plays. I think our team has been so good.”
The Islanders’ defense was nowhere to be found. The Lightning were permitted easy access to the crease and low slot and screened the New York goalies at will.
“This game, we’ll wash it away,” Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said. “We’ve lost some heartbreakers in overtime, some real hard matches and all that. Sometimes you get it handed to you like we did today.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves to get the win.
The Bolts were 3-for-6 on the power play.
Jordan Eberle scored for the Isles in the first period to tie the game at 1-1.
“We know how they play,” Eberle said. “It was just one of those games. They get a chance and we made a mistake. They get a chance, it ends up in the back of our net.”
Ondrej Palat, Victor Hedman and Ryan McDonagh also scored for the Lightning.
“We haven’t played for a week, and you were wondering how the start was going to be,” Hedman said. “And then [Point] went out and did that. He set the tone from the start, along with [Kucherov] and [Ondrej Palat] once again. They were unbelievable. But Brayden Point is taking this to another level, that’s for sure.”
Yanni Gourde had two goals for the Lightning including the goal that made it 4-1 in the second period.
The goal was not immediately called, no signal from goal judge, but after video review, the puck was determined to have crossed the line.
“[The Islanders are] a proud group,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “I don’t expect them to roll over for us. It’s just one game.”
Nick Leddy had a so what goal for the Islanders in the third period to make the score, at the time, 6-2.
“They definitely capitalized on a lot of [chances],” Leddy said. “They’ve got a high-end skill team, but we’ve just got to try to limit those as much as possible and really try to take away their time and space.”
Thomas Greiss got the start for the Isles but did not make it to 11 minutes of ice time before getting the hook, he surrendered three goals on nine shots.
Semyon Varlamov made 20 saves on 25 shots.
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