Lightning Take Game 2, Beat Islanders 4-2

On Tuesday night, the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the New York Islanders 4-2 to tie their semifinal series at 1-1. In a chippy game, the Bolts outplayed the Isles to claim Game 2 on home ice.

Game Recap

The first period began with three penalties in the first five minutes. However, the first goal was scored on even strength by Brayden Point for his 10th goal of the playoffs. Later in the period, Brayden Point crashed into New York’s goalie Semyon Varlamov. Varlamov left the game and was replaced by rookie goalie Ilya Sorokin. The cards seemed to be in the Lightning’s favor, but the Islanders grabbed the next goal. Brock Nelson scored unassisted on the power play for the final goal of the period. Although the game was 1-1, Tampa Bay dominated in shots 17-10.

Semyon Varlamov was taken care of in the locker room and was back in net for the second period. A few minutes in, Tampa Bay’s Ondrej Palat scored to give his team a 2-1 lead. However, he did so as the referees and linesmen missed that the Lightning had seven skaters on the ice at the same time, which should have stopped play.

“Obviously you guys know there was too many men on the ice there,” Trotz said. “They had seven guys. Disappointed in that. But we tried to battle through.”

Heading into the third period, the Lightning were up 2-1. The final frame was filled with anger as there were 11 penalties; eight different players headed to the box. 2:16 into the third period, defenseman Jan Rutta scored to extend Tampa Bay’s lead. Seven minutes later, Victor Hedman scored an insurance goal on the power play to make the game 4-1. However, the Islanders would not go down without a fight. Mat Barzal scored his fifth goal of the playoffs with 3:16 left in the game. The motivated New York Islanders fought until the end with their best effort, but Tampa Bay held them off 4-2.

Takeaways/Notes

• Brayden Point opened the scoring for the Lightning 8:58 into the first period. It marks his fourth game-opening goal of the postseason – the most among all players in the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs – and the 10th of his playoff career, the most in Lightning history.
• Point became just the second player in Lightning history to record 10 or more goals in consecutive postseasons, joining Nikita Kucherov (2015 & 2016).
• Nikita Kucherov had his 19th career multi-assist game of the postseason, trailing only Sidney Crosby (29) and Evgeni Malkin (24) for the most among active NHL players.
• Jan Rutta scored his first career playoff goal and his first NHL marker since Dec. 14, 2019.
• Victor Hedman scored his first goal of the postseason and ninth career playoff goal against the Islanders. Only four defensemen in NHL history have scored more against a single franchise: Bobby Orr (12 vs. NYR), Denis Potvin (11 vs. PHI), Paul Reinhart (11 vs. EDM) and Paul Coffey (10 vs. WIN).

Up Next

With the series tied at 1-1, Tampa Bay will play Game 3 on the road at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum. Game 3 is on Thursday, June 17th. Puck drop is scheduled for 8:00 PM EST.