After the Islanders lost a second straight overtime game to the Lightning on Friday night in Brooklyn, putting them on the brink of elimination, they woke up at home on Saturday morning, flew to Florida, then had an almost-full practice on Saturday afternoon at a rink outside Tampa. The Islanders had a 3-on-1 break near the midpoint of the period, but Bishop stopped Shane Prince. It proved to be the shortest overtime period of the playoffs, however, as Jason Garrison used his cannon of a shot from the point to blast the game victor past Thomas Greiss at 1:34.
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Tampa Bay won back-to-back playoff games in overtime for the first time since games two and three of the 1996 opening round series against the Philadelphia Flyers. Tampa Bay has been very successful at making in-game adjustments after starting each game slowly (with the exception of Game 2).
Kucherov is a great player and is having another phenomenal postseason, but giving up a goal on that shot from that spot on the ice is a tough one to let in.
Garrison said it’s important that the Lightning learn from that Detroit game, where they had several defensive breakdowns that led to breakaways and scoring opportunities for the Red Wings.
As expected, it has been an entertaining series between the New York Islanders and Tampa Bay Lightning, with Game 3 being a thriller in the Barclays Center.
Snyder is considered one of the bright, young minds in the game with a knack for developing players.
That approach worked as Garrison scored more than a minute earlier than Brian Boyle did in ending Game 3 with his goal in overtime. “Just like you treat every superstar on every team – you try to do your best to limit his time and space and try to limit the Grade A chances”.
“You’ve got to tip your hat to ‘Bish, ‘ because he saved us in the first”, Cooper said.
The Lightning tied it up with 12:11 remaining in regulation on Kucherov’s slapshot that found a hole between the right arm of Greiss and the post. “I think that what puts us in the position we’re in”. “So we all need to be better and I’m sure we will”.
“You’re going to have these times when you’ve got to overcome adversity”.
“You can slowly feel momentum when it turns and I think that’s a big part of playoffs – trying to grab momentum back as fast as you can and then trying to hold onto it when you have it”, Lightning winger Ryan Callahan said. You gotta have believability and trust and hope with one another that you just continue to play within the framework that you want to play with and get the results that you get. “We know we didn’t leave our best on the table here and were extremely fortunate to get out of here with two wins and now we can’t take for granted we’re going home”.
“It says a lot about the team, a lot of character”, said Garrison, the big blueliner and former Canuck whose timely blast beat Greiss clean. And as badly as Tampa Bay needs to start these games faster, NY must find a way to maintain strong starts throughout the entire game.
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“We’ve just got to keep pushing”, Islanders forward Josh Bailey said. And when asked what needs to change in Game 5, he rattled off a couple potential adjustments (like getting pucks deep and eliminating turnovers), but said he was pleased with the way his team had played in each of the last two games. It doesn’t matter if you play bad and win or play good and win. And they’re running out of chances to find that extra gear.
