*Photo from Lighthouse Hockey*
Tampa Bay leads series 2-1
The Tampa Bay Lightning take mistakes made by their opposition and punish them on the scoreboard for it. The New York Islanders know this all too well, but that doesn't mean they can stop it. Yanni Gourde scored, Brayden Point scored, and the Lightning defeated the Islanders 2-1 on Thursday night.
Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said "This group is comfortable in these situations. It's the conference finals or semifinals, whatever you want to call it. This time of the year, it's guys doing whatever it takes to win, that's the most important thing. When you have a complete buy-in, you're getting results like we're getting right now."
Gourde kicked off the scoring 10:15 into the first period, giving Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead with his 3rd goal of the playoffs. After the Islanders managed to tie it at 1-1 thanks to Cal Clutterbuck, Point scored with 20 seconds remaining in the second period, giving the Lightning a 2-1 lead, which they held on to with a suffocating 3rd period.
Point's goal in the second period continued his recent hot streak, a big reason why the Lightning are where they are right now. Point's goal was his 11th of the playoffs, and he also scored a goal in his 6th straight game, to go with 8 goals in his last 9 games.
Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of the win that "To be honest, I was a little concerned because I thought we were sitting back a little too much early in the third. Give full credit to the Islanders. They were pressing. We knew, we talked about that in between periods that they're the team that has to press, and they did. I thought we blew some opportunities because when a team does press, we had some opportunities to make some plays against them, which we ended up not doing. But it was okay."
Semyon Varlamov got the loss in net for the Islanders, stopping 23 out of 25 shots, for a .920 save percentage, but Andrei Vasilevskiy was better for Tampa Bay, recording a .964 save percentage while saving 27 out of 28 shots, as the Lightning took a 2-1 series lead.
Islanders coach Barry Trotz said of the Lightning win that "They've been in this position a few times, obviously, they're Stanley Cup champions. They've been in these situations. We tried. We have to get more pucks, we're going to have to get inside. We had some chances, and Vasilevskiy made a couple of key saves."
Game 4 is on Saturday night on Long Island, with the Lightning looking to take a 3-1 series lead, and the Islanders looking to tie the series 2-2 and force a game 6 back on Long Island.
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