Tampa Bay Lightning were in New York, for game four against the Islanders on Friday evening, with the Lightning one game up in the series.
The Islanders came out strong on their home ice, and when Mike Blunden received a two minute penalty for roughing against Ryan Strome, the Islanders went heavily on the attack. The sustained pressure paid off, when Frans Nielsen passed to Nikolay Kulemin in the corner, Kulemin’s quick return pass to Kyle Okposo on the spot was then fired at the goal, and went past Ben Bishop to give the Islanders an early lead.
The first period saw the Islanders dominate, as they managed sixteen shots to Lightning’s six, but despite another pair of Lightning penalties, the Islanders didn’t manage to increase their lead, but did come close several times. Strome was denied, but it took a video replay to show that even though the puck had made it under Bishop, it didn’t cross the goal line, and Shane Prince rang the crossbar.
Tampa managed a much better performance in the second, and Jean-Francois Berube played almost five minutes in their goal, when Thomas Greiss’ blade broke after 1:27 and he had to head off for repairs. Greiss returned to the ice, and the game was still 1-0 to the Islanders.
The second period, saw three penalties, all against New York, but even though the visitors out shot the Islanders eleven to six the buzzer signalled the end of the period and the score remained 1-0.
After seven minutes of the third period, Tampa had the puck deep in the Islanders zone, when Tyler Johnson sent the puck out from behind the goal, to Tuesday night’s third period hero, Nikita Kucherov. Kucherov’s shot from the face off spot, bounced off Greiss’s arm, and the momentum carried the puck through and tied the score. This was Kuckerov’s eighth goal of the play-offs, for which he is currently leading the NHL.
The third period, compared to the previous two, was very light on shots, Lighting getting five on target to the Islanders six. Both teams played a clean period too, no penalties to either side. So with both teams playing sensible, defensive hockey, the third period finished with the game tied.
After a minute of overtime, Lightning had the puck in the Islanders zone when Ondrej Palat sent it out to Andrej Suster. Suster faded back towards the blue line, and sent the puck all the way across the ice to Jason Garrison. Garrison unleashed a cannon of a shot, which went through traffic and ended the game after 1:27 of overtime.
Both teams head down to Florida, for game five at the Amalie Arena, Tampa, where it is do or die time for the Islanders. New York will need a win to keep their Stanley Cup hopes alive, but the Lightning will have their own hopes of advancing to the next stage of the competition on home ice. After being defeated in the finals by the Chicago Blackhawks last year, Lighting will be wanting to go one better this year and lift the cup. A win Sunday will see them advance, where they will need to play either the Penguins or the Capitals, a series which is currently 3-1 in favour of the Penguins.
You must be logged in to post a comment.