Tampa Bay rallied late in the third to earn a point but the Islanders took it 3-2 in overtime on Saturday night at Amalie Arena.
On a night where Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 33 shots, the Lightning came up short offensively again with Jake Guentzel and Nikita Kucherov as the two lone scorers.
It was another night of the Bolts getting prime scoring opportunities but not being able to capitalize on them. The team has scored less than three goals for the fourth time in the past six games.
“I think I have said this before. There was a long period of time where we were probably scoring more than expected and now, we are most definitely scoring less than expected,” said Lightning coach Jon Cooper.
The Lightning opened the scoring when Guentzel tipped a shot by Erik Cernak 5:39 into the second period.
Adam Boqvist, who was making his first appearance with the Islanders since being claimed off waivers on Friday, kept the play alive after Mat Barzal's breakaway chance was stopped by Vasilevskiy. Boqvist scored with 1:44 left in the second period.
Kyle Palmieri put New York ahead 6:41 into the third period. Right as it looked like the game was over, Nikita Kucherov tied the game up for the Lightning with 45.3 seconds left. Amalie Arena came alive.
Not long after the opening face-off, Tony DeAngelo capitalized on a breakaway, giving the New York Islanders their seventh straight win.
“It's just testing your will and your patience. Now, it's a race for the last 30 games here and our urgency level is going to have to be higher than ever but, for the most part, I can't sit here and fault the guys for their effort or anything like that,” said Cooper.
The Lightning will face the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night is a close divisional battle.