TAMPA BAY, FL -- They say lightning never strikes twice but against the New York Islanders, the Bolts lit the lamp five times en route to a 5-0 win on Saturday night.
The Islanders were fortunate that the Pittsburgh Penguins choked against the Boston Bruins. But the Florida Panthers won 7-0 against the Columbus Blue Jackets to hop Pittsburgh and now sit two points behind the Islanders.
LINES
Zach Parise-Bo Horvat-Hudson Fasching
Pierre Engvall-Brock Nelson-Kyle Palmieri
Anders Lee-Jean-Gabriel Pageau-Simon Holmstrom
Matt Martin-Casey Cizikas-Cal Clutterbuck
Adam Pelech-Scott Mayfield
Alexander Romanov-Ryan Pulock
Samuel Bolduc-Noah Dobson
Ilya Sorokin (pulled)
Semyon Varlamov
RAPID RECAP
As we have seen over the last few New York Islanders' wins, Lane Lambert's club got in on the forecheck early, finishing their hits and allowing the Tampa Bay Lightning with little to no room.
However, as the period went on, the Lightning started to get chances, especially off the Islanders' mistakes.
They earned themselves a power play after extended zone time, a power play that is 30.6 percent on home ice, 25.1 percent in total.
The Lightning recorded two shots on their power play before Stamkos hooked Pageauthe Islanders did get on the power play for 1:02, but they failed to get a shot on goal.
After dominating the offensive zone, the Lightning scored the first goal of the game as a Mikhail Sergachev shot deflected off Romanov's shin and past Sorokin at 17:53 of the first period.
The Islanders were dominated, possession-wise, in the latter half of the opening frame, but Sorokin was sharp--as he had to be--to keep it a 1-0 deficit after twenty.
Tanner Jeannot scored his first goal as a member of the Lightning at 3:42 of the second period as he was left all alone in the low slot.
Defensemen Mayfield and Pulock took the same player in front, and a few others were caught puck-watching,
The Islanders got a power play with a chance to cut the deficit to 2-1 less than three minutes after a nifty deke by Cizikas.
Both units got chances, with Samuel Bolduc launching two lasers on goal, but no dice as the Islanders remained down by two.
Nikita Kucherov gave the Bolts a 3-0 lead at 9:57 of the second period as he scored on a breakaway for his 29th of the season.
The Islanders allowed Kucherov to sneak behind them as he had that breakaway from well inside the neutral zone.
The Lightning added another less than two minutes later as Steven Stamkos scored his 33rd of the season as the puck deflected off his skate and in at 11:45 of the second.
That goal ended Sorokin's night, as he was pulled for the first time this season. He stopped 17 of 21.
Lambert had the opportunity to pull Sorokin back in Los Angeles after that game got out of hand with another game the next day against the Anaheim Ducks. Lambert elected to go back to Sorokin in what was a 6-3 win.
This move likely means Sorokin will get the nod against the Carolina Hurricanes.
With 7:23 to play in the middle frame, there was a scrum in front of Varlamov, and Romanov was injured as he headed to the room.
The Islanders did not surrender another goal and entered the third down 4-0. Romanov did return for the final frame.
Brayden Point added a power-play tally with at 13:27 of the third for his 48th of the season.
With 3:59 to play in the final frame, Clutterbuck and Pat Maroon were given 10-minute misconducts.
The third period seemed like a walk-through as the Islanders failed to score, losing 5-0.
The chances were there for the Islanders Saturday, but the Islanders failed to beat netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy, who was strong when he had to be.
"We started the game fine," Islanders captian Anders Lee said. "The first 20 was a fine period. We did some good things, needed to tighten it up and then the second was garbage [..] We just can't...we had some missed assignemnts, little things that we haven't been doing lately."
WHAT'S NEXT: The New York Islanders face the Carolina Hurricanes in Carolina Sunday at 6 PM ET.