Jason Garrison scored 94 seconds into overtime as the Tampa Bay Lightning move to within one win from the Eastern Conference finals after beating the New York Islanders 2-1.
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Tampa Bay needs goaltender Ben Bishop to be at his best to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals for the second straight year.
The turning point in Game 4 came 7:49 into the third, when the Islanders allowed Kucherov to get open at the face-off dot for a shot that beat Greiss on the short-side. He took control of a loose puck at the high slot and beat Islanders goalie Thomas Greiss on the near post. Tampa Bay trailed until forward Nikita Kucherov tied the game 1-1 just under halfway through the third period.
For the Tampa Bay Lightning to go deep in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, they were going to need their best players to take on an even bigger role with center Steven Stamkos and defenseman Anton Stralman each out because of injury. The Lightning were 4-1 at home this postseason, with the only loss coming against the Islanders in Game 1 of this series. But they dropped the final four games of this series after taking Game 1 at Amalie Arena.
Russell Westbrook scored 31 points for the Thunder, but he made just 10 of 31 shots.
Allan Walsh, Halak’s agent, was on hand for Game 5 and presumably chatted with general manager Garth Snow about Halak and his future with the team.
Game 4 will be Sunday in Oklahoma City.
First, it was against the Florida Panthers, a team they have little recent history with.
Atlanta turned in a much more respectable showing after getting blown out in Game 2. None of the major teams in Tampa Bay have ever reached back-to-back conference titles.
SALT LAKE CITY – The Utah Jazz have extended coach Quin Snyder’s contract.
Expect the same lineup from the lineup, with maybe a slight change to the seventh defenseman – Lightning coach Jon Cooper put Luke Witkowski in the lineup along with a healthy Matt Carle in for Matt Taormina/Nikita Nesterov in Game 4 – and of course, Bishop still in the crease for the Bolts. The team isn’t concerned that Sutter might not return for a sixth season. It doesn’t matter if you play bad and win, play good and win. Snyder played at Duke and was an assistant coach there as well. “We couldn’t find a way here in the last few games to score some goals”. Although Tampa lost the first game at home, they won the next four, which included two wins in Brooklyn.
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Ryan Strome thought he had doubled New York’s lead at the 9:11 mark as he deflected a pass from Steve Bernier, but it was smothered by Bishop. And that’s just to start.
