Game one of their second round Stanley Cup match up, saw the New York Islanders head back to Florida, this time to meet the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Thomas Greiss was in goal again for the Islanders, playing all of their Stanley Cup games so far this year, with Ben Bishop still the favoured net minder for Lightning, who, had also been the man in net for the post season so far.
As the game crossed the three minute mark, Vladislav Namestnikov crossed the Islanders blue line, and passed out towards the wing, to Jonathan Drouin. Drouin sent the puck back towards the middle, where an oncoming Ondrej Palat sent a one timer straight past Griess, and getting the home team off to an early start.
Islanders, however, still had plenty of time to strike back, and it didn’t take them long to have control of the puck deep in the Tampa zone. John Tavares pass from the corner, to Alan Quine in the slot, saw Quine take a shot which was blocked by Bishop. The puck went out towards the boards, and was picked up by Travis Hamonic. With Kyle Okposo creating a screen in front of the Lightning goal, Hamonic’s shot was obscured, went between Bishop’s legs, and trickled in to the goal, levelling the score.
Play went back and forth for the period, and with less than three to play, Ryan Strome sent the puck in to the Lightning zone, where it was picked up on the wing by Brock Nelson, who slipped it back to Strome. Strome sent the puck across the ice in front of the Lightning goal, where Shane Prince was waiting to knock it past the post and put the Islanders in to the lead.
In the dying seconds of the first, Strome and Nelson had once more worked their way down the wing, and as Strome took the puck behind the goal, Prince was once again loitering by the post. Moving backwards to give Strome an option, Strome took it and his pass was sent flying back towards the goal, and dipped under the crossbar making the score 3-1 heading in to the first break.
Almost half way through the second, with Jonathan Marchessault in the penalty box Frans Neilson had teamed up with Okposo and Tavares, taking the puck down the ice in a display of passing that had the puck moving across the ice and back at real speed. As he headed in to the top of the faceoff circle, Tavares let fly with a wrist shot, that went hurling in to the goal, giving the Islanders four goals following the Lightning’s early first.
Bishop headed off the ice following this goal, and was replaced by Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Jon Cooper obviously had words for his team back in the locker room, and Tampa came out in to the third fighting. Just over half way through the period, they were moving the puck around the Islanders zone and looking dangerous.
Long passes round all the skaters on the ice, resulted in Victor Hedman sending the puck to Matthew Carle, who sent it across the ice, to Nikita Kutherov, who down on one knee knocked it in to the corner of the goal.
As play continued in the neutral zone, Alex Killorn tried to dump the puck in to the Islanders zone, but Strome was poking his stick in and the puck deflected up and in to the Islanders bench, where it hit head coach Jack Capuano in the side of the head. Capuano returned to the bench almost ten minutes later, bruised and with a cut, but aside from complaining of a head ache, he seemed to be fine.
Play went on, with the Lightning attacking hard, and Greiss making save after save. The onslaught took its toll though, and with a scramble in front of the goal Valtteri Filppula managed to knock it past Greiss.
Pushing for a draw and trying to put the game in to overtime, Tampa net minder, Vasilevskiy, headed back to the bench, getting an extra skater on, and increasing the pressure on the Islanders goal.
Calvin de Haan managed to knock the puck out, and in to centre ice, where it was picked up by Casey Cizikas, who took it over the Lightning blue line, a quick pass in to the middle and Cal Clutterbuck had a straight and clear shot, which he calmly took, bringing the score to 5-3 with only seconds left in the game.
The Tampa Bay Lightning remain at home, hosting the New York Islanders for game two, Saturday afternoon.
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