RTP Daily, September 16th: The Isles Won’t Surrender
It took 5 periods but the Isles managed to stay alive
If you’re feeling sad about nearing the end of the Stanley Cup playoffs, the New York Islanders have got you covered. Not only did they make sure the series was extended last night, they pushed the game to double overtime against a team. Playoff overtime is just glorious, I pretty much recommend it for every game now but maybe with a 7PM start?
Tuesday Night’s Game:
New York Islanders 2, Tampa Bay Lightning 1 (2OT), TBL leads series 3-2
A lot of people wrote off the Islanders after they went down 2-0 and their “Cinderella” run seemed to be coming to an end. Then they showed life in Game 3 and cut the lead to 2-1 and then again last night in game 5.
The Tampa Bay Lightning seem to be driven this season, none of this we’re a good team and we’ll sail through every series. They have constantly shown how much more skilled and structured they are over the Islanders but as the game went on last night, you could tell fatigue was going to be a major factor in the final result.
At the end of the first period, the Islanders got on the scoreboard with a laser shot from Ryan Pulock on a power play and went into the first intermission with a lead. It wasn’t long into the second period that Victor Hedman found a perfectly positioned rebound and snapped it in for the tying goal. Unfortunately for both teams, that was the end of the goal scoring in regulation time.
The Tampa Bay got a golden opportunity to end the game in regulation or even beginning of overtime when Anthony Beauvillier took a high sticking to double minor against Mikhail Sergachev. With less than 2 minutes left, the Bolts had plenty of time to just end it there. They didn’t.
The shot count by the end of regulation was 25-16 in favour of the Lightning and they were not planning to tire anytime soon.
The first overtime period started with the remainder of the Bolts 4 minute power play which was again unsuccessful. The period had some good plays but both teams displayed a bit of caution. Both teams had came close but the goalies were definitely the stars of this period.
Matthew Barzal was just oh so close.
The Bolts seemed to have come to full force strength in double overtime and when it looked like the Islanders were in a lot of trouble, Kevin Shattenkirk made a deadly mistake on the blue-line and the puck landed on Anders Lee stick who now had a clear 2 on 1 race to net alongside no other, Jordan Eberle. Andrei Vasilevskiyhad no time to react and the game ended with the Isles pushing a game 6.
Full Highlights: