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 6th
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 4th line with time winding down. Cal Clutterbuck
scored an ENG to help the Islanders endure a tense 3rd 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 4th
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 1st and 2nd stars of
the game.
Steven
Stamkos has been skating in a non-contact jersey during practice for Tampa Bay.
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