Game four of their Stanley Cup match up, saw the Florida Panthers have their second game in New York, against the Islanders.
Unlike the first three games, both teams were slow to get the scoring off to a start.
During the first period, Casey Cizikas took a trip to the penalty box after tripping Brian Campbell, but Florida could not us the man advantage to their benefit, and Cizikas returned to the ice two minutes later with the score still 0-0.
Jonathan Huberdeau tripped Johnny Boychuk a few minutes later, and not only did New York fail to use the power play to put themselves ahead, Nick Bjugstad almost put the Panthers ahead with a short handed goal, stopped by a combination of the crossbar, and Brock Nelson’s stick.
Almost half way through the second period, the puck ended up in the Islanders goal, it took a coach’s challenge and a review of the footage, but it was decided it was a no-goal. After Shane Prince’s shot was blocked by Roberto Luongo, Prince slipped down, and kicked the puck – and Luongo – in to the net.
The Panthers were awarded another power play, when Bjugstad was tripped by Matt Martin, and the Florida team managed to make use of the extra man on the ice. Aaron Ekblad managing to scoop the puck out of a scramble of players, pushing it to Jaromir Jagr behind the goal, he knocked it out to Teddy Purcell, whose shot knocked it through traffic and in to the net.
Aleksander Barkov’s slash on Travis Hamonic, earned Barkov two minutes in the sin-bin, and he was shortly joined by Dmitry Kulikov after he tripped Kyle Okposo.
Despite being two players down, the Panthers held the Islanders at bay, until one second after Barkov returned to the ice. Pushing the puck around the Panthers zone, it was sent out towards the blue line by Nelson to Ryan Pulock. Pulock passed on to John Tavares near the side of the goal, and some deft stick work followed by a quick shot tied the game with fifteen seconds left in the second.
Nelson’s slash against Huberdeau gave the Panthers another power play, but the Islanders managed to keep things tight, and the score stayed 1-1.
Half way through the third, Garrett Wilson pushed the puck away from the Islanders goal to Derek MacKenzie, from where it was crossed to Alex Petrovic. His well-timed wrist shot from the top of the face-off circle, sailed in to the goal to put the visitors in to the lead.
A penalty for each team as the period progressed didn’t change things, and as the final buzzer sounded the score remained 2-1 to the Florida Panthers.
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