2016 Playoffs, Lightning Game 1: Prince Takes Bishop

The last time our New York Islanders won a game one in Round 2 was May 2, 1993 in a 3-2 win against the Pittsburgh Penguins.  Tonight, they were in Tampa Bay to open a second round series vs the heavily favored Lightning.

Tampa’s Palat caught the Islanders a little off the mark early in the first and jumped out to a 1-0 lead – a trend New York needs to reverse at all costs.  The 4th line of Martin, Cizikas and Clutterbuck came out flying and throwing hits on everything that moved in a blue jersey.  Casey Cizikas delivered a hard, clean hit on Condra that forced him into the boards and out of the game.  Since the hit, The Islanders responded with a physical surge that put the Lightning off their game and themselves on the scoresheet.  Travis Hamonic (Quine & Tavares) got the Isles evened up a few minutes later.  Shane Prince (Strome & Nelson) responded with a pair of goals in a 2:30 minute span to put New York up by a 3-1 score.  Prince is the first Islanders’ player with 2+ goals in 1st period of a playoff game since Game 2 of 1983 DF (Duane Sutter: 2).  Tampa Bay went to the penalty box 4 times in the first two periods and struggled to keep pace with the Islanders pressure in the offensive zone.  Defensively, the Isles have been good and Thomas Greiss has been playing well.

John Tavares would add his 6th playoff leading goal on the PP in the last 2 seconds of the 2nd period for a 4-1 lead.  Per @Eliassports, “Tavares is only player in Isles history w at least 20 pts in 1st 20 playoff games. JT w 22 so far (11-11-22).”  91’s goal was enough to chase Vezina candidate, Ben Bishop (9 of 13 with a .692Sv%) from the net.  Three goals against Bishop is the most he's given up since the Islanders did it on 4/1.  Andrei Vasilevskiy came on in relief.  Nikita Kutcherov (4-2) would score his 6^th goal of the playoffs at the 12:00 mark, once again tying Tavares for the NHL lead.  Then, in a fluke deflection off Ryan Strome’s shin guard, Jack Capuano was hit in the nose by the puck and had to be taken off of the bench to get stitched up.  Tampa Bay came to life after Kutcherov’s goal and were able to generate pressure in the Isles zone.  Conversely, New York seemed to go into a prevent mode of defense. But, Thomas Greiss continued to make big saves for New York, especially in close.  He robbed Drouin on a right post wrap around that looked to be a sure goal.  Casey Cizikas got called for a delay of game & Filppula converted off a rebound to close the score within one (4-3) with 2:30 remaining. Capuano returned to the bench and sent out the 4^th line with time winding down. Cal Clutterbuck scored an ENG to help the Islanders endure a tense 3^rd period and a 5-3 game 1 win.

The story of this game was pressure.  Even though the Islanders were out-shot 36-22 and went 1 for 4 on the PP, their initial response to a 1-0 Tampa lead was huge.  They brought a relentless and physical press that caused Tampa to make mistakes. Those mistakes tilted the game in New York’s favor with the secondary scoring from Shane Price (2 goals on 3 shots with a +1 rating) to Ryan Strome (previously scratched) & Brock Nelson (2 assists each), the Islanders didn’t need to just rely on John Tavares to carry their offense.  The TBL allowed 4 goals tonight after only yielding 8 in round 1.  Their defense was able to slow down the speedy Lightning forwards and got some solid goal-tending from Thomas Griess (33 of 36 with a .917Sv%).  The 4^th line were awesome tonight.  From their physical play to the points, they were a factor for the Isles ability to control a large portion of the play.

My Grail Knight of the game is Shane Prince for the energy he brought tonight and the 2 clutch goals he added in just 9:05 of ice time to help the Islanders win the game.  Per Arthur Staple, “Prince had 3 goals in 42 games w/ OTT before trade, 3 goals in 20 games w Isles in reg. season. Now 3 goals in his first 7 playoff games.”

Game 2 is on Saturday afternoon and the Islanders need to be ready for an even more motivated Lightning squad.  The Isles have had Bishop’s number this season and he could be another bad start away from yielding his starting role to Andrei Vasilevskiy in net.  Here’s to the Islander’s continuing to believe in themselves and never slowing down, even behind the bench.

Tavares, "We heard when he went off it was his nose (not eye), I don't think we felt as bad, he is always telling us to block shots."

Whatever it takes.

Isles Notes:

Shane Price and Brock Nelson were named 1^st and 2^nd stars of the game.

Steven Stamkos has been skating in a non-contact jersey during practice for Tampa Bay.