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New York Islanders Stunned After Game 3 OT Loss To Tampa Bay Lightning (Highlights)

By
Jeff Clutterbuck
-

The New York Islanders skate off the Barclays Center ice after falling in OT to the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-4.

1st Period:

Jack Capuano made it a point during the team’s practice on Monday to break the game down in a simple manner (you can read the exact quote from Justin Weiss’s preview piece). In the first period, his message definitely seemed to have taken root.

The Islanders were the more physical team by far, with the fourth line bringing their usual tenacity and fearlessness to bear on Tampa Bay; an advantage that the Islanders will need to continue to exploit throughout the remainder of the series.

It paid off early, as the newly-returned-to-the-lineup Josh Bailey found himself with the puck getting poked right onto his stick in front of the crease, and seconds later the Islanders had scored first for only the second time at home in these playoffs.

New York was coming into Game 3 with the intent of getting shots on goal, and in the first they did just that, outshooting Tampa Bay  17-9 and generally winning the possession battle.

But for all the good the Islanders did in the first, it went for naught as Tampa Bay took advantage of a late first period power play, and scored to tie it up with just seconds remaining.

2nd Period:

The first real chance at scoring for the Islanders came on a Shane Prince breakaway a few minute into the second; Prince was clearly hooked with no one between him and Bishop, but there was no penalty shot call to be had. Instead, on the ensuing power play, the Islanders failed to register a single shot on goal on what may have been their weakest man-advantange sequence in the entire playoffs up to this point.

RELATED: Watch Thomas Hickey Destroy Jonathan Drouin

Shorty after, Thomas Hickey absolutely leveled Jonathan Drouin, which eventually led to a series of roughing and cross checking calls that gave the Islanders yet another PP opportunity: unfortunately New York did not capitalize and it remained a 1-1 game until Victor Hedman took a Tampa Bay face-off win and blasted it past Thomas Greiss to give the Lightning the 2-1 advantage.

Tampa Bay continued to surge for the bulk of the second period, that is until Nick Leddy used a Matt Martin screen to perfection, and snuck one past Ben Bishop to tie the game. And with that, we headed to the third.

3rd Period:

New York and Tampa Bay opened the final frame by trading power play chances, and Josh Bailey continued to show that Jack Capuano is pushing all the right buttons in the playoffs, scoring on the man-advantage for his second goal of the game.

Of course, this game involved the New York Islanders, so less than a minute later, some incredibly soft defensive play from Johnny Boychuk and Calvin De haan allowed Lightning center Vladislav Namestnikov to take advantage and score, tying the game again at 3-3

The fourth line received their kudos in the first period, but came through even moreso in the third, as Cal Clutterbuck showed off his underrated offensive abilities, sniping a shot past Ben Bishop to give the Islanders the lead once more at 4-3.

Considering how the game had gone up to that point, Islanders fans continued to hold their breath as time ticked down in the third: a great give and go between John Tavares and Nikolai Kulemin was stopped by Bishop with a little over three minutes to go to deny New York a two goal lead, and after an Islander icing with 2:11 remaining, Lightning Head Coach Jon Cooper pulled Ben Bishop in hopes of getting the equalizer. You can figure out what happened next…

Overtime:

It was a short affair in the extra period, as former New York Ranger Brian Boyle was able to clean up a shot that wide on Greiss, and had a wide open net to finish the game off.

Tampa Bay takes a 2-1 lead in the series, with Game 4 scheduled for Friday night at 7PM EST at the Barclays Center.

3 Stars of the Game:

  1. Brian Boyle
    2. Viktor Hedman
    3. Josh Bailey

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Jeff Clutterbuck
https://www.elitesportsny.com
Jeff Clutterbuck resides just outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but has inherited a passionate fandom for the New York Yankees and New York Islanders from the Long Island-based side of the family. Jeff has been a long time member of the music review site The Daily Vault, but recently decided to experiment with sports writing, and express all of the frustrations and joy of being a New York sports fan!

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