After a two-day break, the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Islanders were back at it tonight for Game 4 of Round 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Islanders were skating unfamiliar territory tonight — down in a series for the first time in these playoffs. The Isles took Game 1 of the series, while the Lightning had taken the last two.
Stralman, second on the Lightning for scoring, also remained out. Earlier, Coach Cooper said he remains doubtful that Stralman would return for Game 5; he's been out since March 25th with a fractured leg. The 29-year-old was solid for Tampa Bay this season, recording 34 points with nine goals and 25 assists. On the bright side, Matt Carle retuned tonight after missing the last two games. He was out with an undisclosed injury.
Right off the bat, Mike Blunden was sent to the box for roughing against Ryan Strome at 2:44. An early PP for NY led to the Isles’ Okposo getting on the board 4:20 into the 1st.
Just under 10 minutes into the 1st, a play was reviewed to see if the Islanders scored. The puck was somewhere underneath Ben Bishop, but could not be seen crossing the goal line. Forty seconds later, the Islanders came close to making it a 2-0 game with a hit from John Tavares off the goal post.
At 14:40 AND 14:41, Ryan Callahan got whacked with roughing against Thomas Hickey. The Lightning were able to hold off the double minor while he was in the box.
Islanders were outshooting the Lightning early in this game, and in the series, 2 to 1. Shot attempts were 31-10 in favor of the Islanders at the end of the 1st. While we had unbelievable goaltending from both teams, the 1st period ended 1-0, Isles.
There was lots to look forward to in the 2nd. The Lightning started off with Cizikas in the box at 1:33 for tripping. At the same time, Griess lost his right skate blade. The Islanders looked poised to extend their lead, but Big Ben Bishop kept it from happening.
The Lightning came up short during their second PP of the period. (Steven Stamkos, who led the team in PP goals during regular season, has been out 5 weeks of an estimated 1-3 months; the Lightning hope to have him back soon.) The pattern continued with the Lightning getting a late 2nd period PP.
At the end of the 2nd, the score remained 1-0.
There was a delayed start to the 3rd period at the Barclays Center, as there was some trouble with the boards. It was unclear if it was Justin Bieber’s fault or the Zamboni. Yeah, is it too late now to say sorry?
The Lightning entered the 3rd with the same one-goal deficit. With less than eight minutes to go, there was quite a turn of events when Kucherov got in there and whipped the puck into the net to tie up the game. Kucherov has scored a goal in six of the last nine games for the Lightning; all three of his goals in this series have been scored in the 3rd period.
With 4 1/2 minutes left, it looked like there should have been a penalty called. Islanders coach Jack Capuano was incredulous when Jason Garrison high-sticked Kyle Okposo and a penalty wasn’t called. There were 18 million people who saw it, and four who didn’t. The Islanders needed to shift their focus back to the Lightning, and not the refs.
When the play started back up, there were two pucks on the ice. Where did it come from?
Tonight's exciting and very well-played 3rd period led to the second overtime of the series. There were building issues, skate issues, and multiple puck issues, and all Lightning fans wanted was for one last puck to go into the net.
This was 14th OT game in the playoffs, and the fourth one in a row, but the shortest of the OT games this postseason. A minute and 34 in, the Bolts' Jason Garrison fired a cannon into the net to win 2-1 over the Islanders in Game 4.
Sudden victory for the Lightning. And sudden death for the Islanders? The Tampa Bay Lightning are just one away from moving on.
Game 5 of the best-of-seven series will be played at Amalie Arena on Sunday at 3 p.m.
This article appears in May 5-11, 2016.