The Tampa Bay Lightning are one victory away from reaching the Eastern Conference finals for the second straight year, and they know it won’t be easy to close out their second-round playoff series against the New York Islanders.
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The New York Islanders were eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs Sunday after losing to the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-0.
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.
The Lightning will face either the Pittsburgh Penguins or Washington Capitals in the East final. His timely goals – with less than a minute left in regulation in Game 3, and eight minutes into the third period of Game 4 Friday night – gives him a NHL-leading eight this postseason. They host the New York Islanders in Game 5 of this second-round series on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET at Amalie Arena.
Tampa Bay needs goaltender Ben Bishop to be at his best to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals for the second straight year.
He said his team again played well, just as they did in Game 3. One team stepping up and cashing in on ever opportunity they get, the other just hasn’t been able to capitalize on theirs.
The Lightning outshot the Islanders 17-11 over the next two periods and finally produced the equalizer on a broken play behind the NY net. He knows and his players know they need to be better in Game 5 because the Islanders will be playing the rest of this series with their season on the line.
New York’s list of pending unrestricted free agents includes Kyle Okposo, who scored 22 goals and 64 points in 79 regular season games and is two years removed from a career-high 27-goal season, and 32-year-old forward Frans Nielsen, who had 20 goals and 52 points in 81 games. “Obviously I didn’t produce anything the last four games and I’m obviously counted on for that…I had some chances, but just have to put them in and make some plays when it matters”.
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Kucherov capped the scoring with a goal at 4:40 of the third period on a breakaway. Islanders D Ryan Pulock returned after missing the last five games due to an upper body injury suffered in Game 4 of the first round against Florida…. After a great start to the postseason, Tavares has struggled against the Lightning, as he hasn’t totaled a point in the last three games. The series isn’t over until one team wins four games. “That could’ve changed the type of game especally (since) we didn’t have too much going”. Bishop also moved one win behind Khabibulin (21) for the franchise lead….
