Tonight the Islanders played the Tampa Bay Lightning at the Nassau Coliseum. While the Islanders were beating the Red Wings and flying back to Long Island from Detroit, the Lightning were in the process of losing an overtime shootout to the New Jersey Devils at the Rock. The teams split the first two meetings this year with each home team winning by a 5-2 score. Coming into the game Tampa Bay was on top of the Atlantic Division with 44 points while the Islanders were second in the Metropolitan Division with the same point total.
The Islanders went with the same line-up from Friday, giving Jaroskav Halak his first back-to-back starts this year. With Halak only facing 18 shots the night before, Capuano felt that it would not be an issue to stay with the hot hand and for him to play again tonight. Tampa Bay was going to go with their back-up goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy in net. Ben Bishop was out with an injury and Evgeni Nabokov played against the Devils. The game was the seventh sell out of the year at the Nassau Coliseum (five of which have come on the last five Saturday evenings). It's starting to get very easy to memorize the number 16,170 when you see it so often.
In the last two games, the Islanders had started flat footed and it took them a full period to get their legs going and for each of the lines to get onto the same page. However, tonight in front of the home crowd they looked a lot better from the jump. The only real excitement in the first period came when Brian Boyle kicked a puck past Halak into the net. The goal was reviewed in Toronto and quickly overturned to keep the game scoreless. Each team had a power play during the period and came up empty. The Islanders led the shot parade 12-5 and even won in the face-off circle. Overall, it was a pretty even period.
In the second period, the Islanders had a couple of more power plays, but once again could not convert. It is very obvious that New York is really struggling on special teams this year. It is hard to imagine what their record would be if they were just fair to middlin' on both sides of the power play. That being said, the Islanders ran into a very hot goalie as Vasilevskiy who had to stand on his head to keep the Islanders off the board. As the game progressed it was clear that the Islanders were getting the better of the play as more time was spent in Tampa Bay's end of the ice. In fact the Islanders were starting to dominate. The Isles had a big edge on the shot chart 15-4 for the period and through two periods they had a 68% edge when they were in the dot. However, the game remained scoreless at the end of two.
The last frame saw more domination from the Islanders, however as the game wore on there was a strong feeling that a lucky bounce would give someone the advantage. With a little over nine minutes gone Connolly got that lucky bounce as he tipped a pass past Halak to give the Lightning the 1-0. It certainly looked like that was going to be the final score sending the home crowd home with a very disappointing loss. After all, when your team totally dominates the opposition your team is supposed to win, right? That answer would be a resounding "Yes! Yes! Yes!" After the Lightning goal the Islanders started to play with more urgency. It reminded me of the Stanley Cup Teams of the past. Whenever those teams got into a similar situation they played like "they were afraid to lose". This team is starting to exhibit those very same characteristics.
With a little over three minutes left things got interesting. John Tavares evened the game at 1-1 with some hard work right in front of Vasilevskiy. After the goal, Tavares looked to the sky as if a huge weight was taken off of his shoulders. It was his 13th goal of the year from both line mates Okposo and Bailey. Then only twelve seconds later, while everyone was still celebrating the tying goal, Anders Lee tipped home a quick shot from Hamonic and in a blink of an eye the Islanders had a 2-1 lead. It was Lee's 7th goal of the year and second goal in two games. Nelson got the second helper. The crowd was beside itself.
Now all the Islanders had to do was withstand a furious Tampa Bay comeback attempt to try to even the score and that is what they did. Tavares took a slap shot to the ear and had to be helped off the ice. He looked to be in a lot of pain, however after the game Capuano said he was fine and only needed a couple of staples to close up the wound. Nickolay Kulemin got the empty net goal, his 6th of the year from Clutterbuck to ice the game at 3-1. Even though Tampa Bay had the better of the play in the third period, the Islanders still out shot them 19-12 in the period.
A look at the final statistics is telling. The Islanders out shot the Lightning 48-21, inclusive of Kyle Okposo's eight shots. New York out hit Tampa Bay 46-25 and were 27 for 47 in the face-off circle. The Lightning had 17 blocks to the Islanders 15, but that is a bit misleading when you look at the overall shot total. After the game Steve Stamkos said it best, "We were dominated." It would have been a shame to not get a point after such a great effort. Getting two points was a well-earned reward.
The fairytale season continues. The Islanders moved to 23-10 which is good for 46 points on the season as they won their 13th home game which equalled their home win total for all of last year. Next up is a tough home game against Montreal on Tuesday before the Christmas break.
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