Reilly Smith scored his fourth goal of the playoffs and had two assists in Sunday’s Game 3 loss to the Islanders.
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Game 4 is Wednesday night in Brooklyn, which saw its first Stanley Cup Playoff game as the Islanders’ new home – and its first victory.
Hickey scored 12:31 into the extra period to lift the Islanders to a 4-3 victory over the Florida Panthers on Sunday in Game 3 of their first-round series, giving NY a win in its first playoff game at the Barclays Center.
One fan mentioned watching the team win Game 3 of their first-round series against the Washington Capitals a year ago.
Despite the late 8 p.m. ET start time, despite the fact that Monday is a workday and despite the lengthy-post-game commute faced by numerous Babylon or Ronkonkoma-bound Long Islanders, the stands remained full throughout overtime.
Nick Bjugstad would restore Florida’s two-goal lead a scant 2:20 later.
James Neal and Colin Wilson also scored, while Forsberg scored the go-ahead goal when his cross-ice pass to Craig Smith hit defenceman Shea Theodore’s skate and trickled past John Gibson. “I nearly play better without a stick sometimes”. “I might have to start thinking of some better celebrations”. The goals by Islanders D Ryan Pulock and C Shane Prince were their first career postseason goals….
Smith helped create the Panthers’ second goal just 1:11 into a wild second. Jaromir Jagr and Roberto Luongo?
Had Ekblad’s goal stood, perhaps the Panthers might have gone on to a 6-0 rout, or maybe something else would have stirred the Islanders to raise their game, and they might have rallied to send the contest to overtime anyway. However, that goal was overturned on a coach’s challenge when video showed Florida was offside when it entered the zone, firing up the raucous Barclay Center crowd. “At the end of the day, we didn’t quit and were resilient”. “That was the turning point”. “Down by two is a lot different than being down by three”.
Penalties to Petrovic and Jussi Jokinen in short succession would give the Islanders a 5-on-3 advantage that would be quickly cashed in on.
“A great play by Johnny”, Okposo said. “I had goosebumps after the anthem”. They came out, they got a couple, but we talked about it, and you could feel it coming once we got the first one. John Tavares got the Isles back within one score with 3:33 to go in the 3rd, but then Dmitry Kulikov responded with an ENG for the Panthers in the closing seconds. Panthers’ coach Gerald Gallant said. 907 save percentage in Round 1 ranks 13th among 17 goalies who’ve played in two or more games so far.
Florida needed just 95 seconds into the second period to take a 3-2 lead on Smith’s rebound goal. They very much so had their fate in their own hands to leapfrog over the Rangers to play the Penguins, but it was pretty apparent they were perfectly comfortable where they were. All he had to do was wrap around Luongo to find the wide-open net, but before Tavares could corral the loose puck, McKenzie hooked him – what seemed like a penalty – but there was no call. Greiss allowed a big rebound off a shot by Bjugstad, and Smith cleaned it up for his third goal of the playoffs.
First came Aleksander Barkov’s first career playoff goal – a hurling wrist shot from mid-slot, teed up by Reilly Smith.
We’re all tied up as the series heads back to Brooklyn on Sunday night.
The possession numbers really favored Florida in Game 1, as the Panthers won the Corsi battle, 68-37, and recorded 46 shots on net.
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Brian Campbell finished the game with a -2 rating and is now a team-worst -5 in the series.
