Tampa swamped in Elmont Islanders throw up six on the board in win

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In Elmont, the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning ran into a buzz saw on Thursday night as the Islanders scored three in each of the first periods en route to a 6-2 win.“It’s disappointing,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “I don’t know how else … is there another adjective beyond that? Let’s be honest. We didn’t have the ideal first period, which, obviously, was disappointing. In the end, it’s a 3-2 game. We hit the post. We’re all over them. It could be 3-3. We take the penalty. We can’t get out of it. It’s 4-2, and then it went downhill after that.”

Ilya Sorokin made 18 saves in the win.

“The commitment that the guys made backchecking, coming back, tracking and blocking shots, things that don’t require talent, but just will, and that’s what we had tonight,” New York coach Patrick Roy said. “The will was phenomenal. … This is a very good team 1-on-1, and I thought our guys were playing well, and we moved that puck fast.”

The Islanders improved to 22-17-12 off their second straight win.

The Isles took a 1-0 lead on a marker from NoahDobson at 4:07 of the opening stanza.

“Obviously, we weren’t happy with our game,” Cernak said. “We let them take the lead from the beginning off an offensive-zone turnover. Kind of an unlucky bounce off my skate into the net.”

Tampa got even at 1-1 when Nikita Kucherov  scored at 6:42.

Mathew Barzal restored the lead, 2-1, to the Isles at 14:07 off a feed from Bo Horvat..

“I knew [Barzal] was kind of over there,” Horvat said. “Obviously, the draw didn’t go exactly as planned. So I knew he was heading back to the back side, and I threw it there, and he made a [heck] of a play to bear down.”

Kyle Palmieri pushed the advantage to 3-1 at 18:35.

The Lightning dropped to 27-20-5 off their second straight loss.

In the middle frame, Brandon Hagel trimmed the deficit to 3-2 when he struck with 74 seconds gone in the period.

New York replied with a power play strike by Ryan Pulock at 7:10 for a 4-2 lead.

“It always feels good to score,” Pulock said. “They’re hard to find as a defenseman. So when you can get on the board like that, at kind of a crucial part of the game, it feels good.”

Horvat stretched the lead to 5-2 at 9:18 of the second.

Casey Cizikas closed out the scoring at 15:22 of the middle frame for the 6-2 final count on the scoreboard. Jonas Johansson made 18 saves in the loss.