The Florida Panthers’ unexpectedly dominant season made them a heavy favorite against first-round opponent NY, on top of the fact that the Isles entered postseason play with an injury-plagued roster.
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Before Sunday night, before his last-gasp equalizer and his brilliant double-overtime victor and his team’s first playoff series victory in 23 years, John Tavares had already begun to rewrite his playoff reputation.
With just 58-seconds remaining Islanders winger Nikolay Kulemin took a shot that deflected off Panthers goalieRoberto Luongo and came to a rest in the goal crease.Jonathan Tavares, who had entered the ice behind the play, came streaking in to tap the puck in to tie the score at 1-1. NY will face the Tampa Bay Lightning in the conference semi-finals beginning later this week.
“We knew eventually we’d get to this point”, he continued. “We believe we can do something special”. “There’s always times in your career you learn a lot about yourself”. “There’s that stat that we hadn’t won in whatever”. It appeared the Islanders would make it 16 consecutive games where they could not string together back-to-back playoff wins. The impressive rookie’s entry pass found Okposo at the blue line and he centered from the boards to Tavares, who ripped a shot from the right circle off Luongo’s left pad.
The Panthers will remember the mistakes they made, the games they let slip out from under them and what they could’ve done in the final 25 minutes of Game 6.
Although his team trails in the set, Panthers coach Gerard Gallant hasn’t had much issue with his team’s compete level in the series.
Since reaching the Wales Conference finals 23 years ago, the Islanders had seven first-round exits, including Game 7 losses on the road at Toronto in 2002 and at Washington a year ago. The Islanders scored on the ensuing rush, and the Panthers will have to wait until the fall for a scoring chance as good.
Game 1 will take place in Tampa and the second round will be released later this afternoon. Tavares works his way through the Panthers’ zone, gets a shot on goal that deflects right back to him and works his way behind the net. Okposo passed to Tavares, whose shot was deflected by Luongo.
However, 37-year-old goalie Roberto Luongo said it was far too soon to find silver linings when his lifelong pursuit of a Stanley Cup would have to be placed on hold for yet another season. Tavares picked up the loose puck, skated around the back of the net and tucked it into the open left corner.
“I’m so happy for those loyal fans”, Healy said. They played as fast as any National Hockey League team you have ever seen. “It was pretty cool to have a front row seat to that”.
The Barclays Center crowd was sure the puck was beneath him.
“You can’t even really process it”, said Tavares. It was obviously just unbelievable to look around and just see all the orange and blue.
To put that into perspective, Panthers defenceman Aaron Ekblad wasn’t born when the Isles last triumphed in a series.
“He played great, ” NY coach Jack Capuano said of his goalie. “It’s a good feeling for these guys”. “Most of the games we had a lead, we just didn’t close it”.
The Islanders pulled Greiss towards the end of the third period. With the exception of the Washington-Philadelphia matchup, each series has produced drama and spirited efforts from both sides. Defensively, the Tampa Bay Lightning are allowing 2.4 goals per game and are killing 84 percent of their power play chances.
“I thought we were in control of the series most nights”, Gallant said. We’ve got a good team here now.
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“And I don’t think the hockey gods were with us at all”, he added.
