TAMPA — The Islanders showed up the Lightning in Game 1, but the defending champions reminded them who they are in Game 2.
On a night when the NHL officiating crew put on an abysmal performance, the Lightning charged back into the Stanley Cup semifinal series with a 4-2 win Tuesday night at Amalie Arena. Heading back to Long Island for Games 3 and 4 on Thursday and Saturday, the Islanders and Lightning are now knotted at one win apiece.
Aside from a raised sense of urgency from the Lightning, the stark difference between Games 1 and 2 was the contributions from Tampa Bay’s first line of Ondrej Palat, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov. After the trio combined for just three shots and Point’s last-second six-on-four power-play goal on Sunday, the Lightning’s top guns scored two goals at even strength in Game 2. Point opened up the scoring in the first period before Palat made it a 2-1 game at 12:15 of the second.
All four on-ice referees either completely missed the six skaters that the Lightning had on for Palat’s goal, or they were looking to make up for the game-tying power-play goal they handed the Islanders after their own defender, Adam Pelech, cross-checked Point and sent him barreling into Isles goalie Semyon Varlamov in the first period.
Varlamov was shaken up and went to the locker room, which brought rookie Ilya Sorokin into the game for the remainder of the period. But Point was called for interference, and the Islanders were gifted a power play.
Brock Nelson took a loose puck and buried it from between the faceoff circles to knot the game, 1-1. Varlamov was back in goal to start the second period.
The Lightning had also not received a single goal from their defensemen all postseason, until they got two Tuesday night. Jan Rutta sniped the first playoff goal of his career from the right point at 2:16 of the third period, before Norris Trophy finalist Victor Hedman capped the Tampa Bay scoring with a power-play goal six minutes later.
Chasing the Lightning after Palat’s goal in the second, the Islanders went against their No. 1 rule when facing a team with a top-tier power-play like Tampa Bay’s and logged 18 penalty minutes in the third period.
Mathew Barzal managed to make it a two-goal game, putting back a rebound off a Jordan Eberle attempt at 16:44 of the third.
The Lightning pushed a narrative after Game 1 that they beat themselves and didn’t put enough pressure on the Islanders, so the home team came out with force. Tampa Bay was in the Isles’ faces from puck drop, with several scrums breaking out throughout the first period.
After the Islanders survived a 59-second four-on-three penalty kill and then a subsequent five-on-four disadvantage, Kucherov dished from behind the Isles’ net to Point at the right post for the 1-0 score at 8:58.
