The New York Islanders (35-23-10) will look to tie the series when they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning (43-21-6) on Sunday. The series is currently 2-1 in Tampa’s favor. At the end of the regular season, the Lightning were second in the Atlantic Division with 92 points and they’ve won 12 of their 16 games played in the bubble. The Islanders finished fifth in the Metropolitan Division and had 80 points. They’ve won 12 of their 19 postseason contests. The last game between these teams was on Friday night, where the Islanders made a late-game push to put away the Lightning. The final score was 5-3.
Lightning Loses Winning Streak
Tampa Bay entered game three of the Eastern Conference Finals on a six-game winning streak. They hadn’t lost a game since their opening contest against the Bruins in the previous round. And, after the first two matchups of the Eastern finals, it was looking as if their winning streak was going to continue, possibly all the way to the Cup finals. However, they were defeated. This was the first game that the team has played in the bubble without Brayden Point. Point currently leads the Lightning with 8 goals and 23 points. He left halfway through game two and is considered day-to-day with an undisclosed injury. At the time of writing, it is unknown if he will be cleared for game four.
The Lightning scored only three games in Thursday’s showdown, one in the first period and the other two in the third. They had no problem using their physicality in the game either. They had a total of 62 hits and ended up with 41 penalty minutes. Between the two teams, though, there were 70 penalty minutes. Tampa’s first goal came in the closing minutes of the first period. Mikhail Sergachev put home his second of the postseason to tie the game for his team. Sergachev would later go on to notch an assist for his team. The Lightning wouldn’t score again until 2:32 into the third period, where Ondrej Palat scored the lone powerplay goal of the night to put his team within one. A little less than ten minutes later, Tyler Johnson tied things up. Though the tie would ultimately be broken, and two Isles goals gave Tampa their first loss of the series. In net for the Lightning was Andrei Vasilevskiy. He stopped 31 of the 35 shots he faced for a .886 save percentage.
Isles Get Their Foot In The Door
The Islanders are the last team remaining in the playoffs that had to play through a qualifying round for their spot. The other three all ended their seasons in a high enough position to get a bye into round one, but New York had to fight their way through the Panthers. The game was pretty high production for the Islanders. Other than the five goals scored, significantly more than their regular-season goals per game of 2.78, they also had a good few more shots than their average. During the regular season, the team was 29th in the league when it came to their 29.6 shots per game, and on Friday they managed 35 shots.
New York trailed behind the Lightning in almost every place except scoring. They only one 42.2% of the faceoffs taken, and they had only 44 hits, 18 less than their opponent. The Islanders either led the game or were tied with Tampa for the entirety of the contest. Things got started in the second half of the first period when Cal Clutterbuck put home the first goal of the game. The next goal wouldn’t be until just under 20 minutes of play later when Adam Pelech got his first of the postseason to put his team up again. Then it was the team’s leading goal scorer, Anthony Beauvillier, getting his ninth in the bubble. Late in the third, the Islanders would answer two early Lightning goals with a pair of their own. Brock Nelson with the game-winner, and then Jean-Gabriel Pageau into the empty net to seal the deal. In goal for the Islanders was Semyon Varlamov. He stopped 34 of the 37 shots he faced for a save percentage of .919.
Notable Trends
- The Islanders are 6-10-2 when their opponent scores first on the road.
- The Islanders are 3-7-2 when the game is tied after the first period on the road.
- The Lightning are 22-10-4 overall when outshot by their opponent.
- The Lightning are 30-9-2 overall when scoring first.
