The Tampa Bay Lightning did not play overly well on Tuesday night against the New York Islanders at the Nassau Coliseum. Thanks to stellar goaltending from Ben Bishop and some late game heroics from Valtteri Filppula, however, the Bolts managed to squeak out a shootout win and stake claim to two very important points. The victory moves Tampa’s record to 20-11-3, good enough for fourth place in the Eastern Conference.
Prior to puck drop on Tuesday, a lot was made of the Lightning’s strong need to take the Islanders seriously. Despite the fact that they had only won one game in their previous ten heading in, it was widely known that New York still had the capacity to beat the injury plagued Lightning. Rather than come out with fire, though, the Bolts played down to their opponent for 56 minutes and nearly cost themselves a chance at victory.
During the course of play, plenty was said about the Islanders’ apparent defensive prowess, but it’s hard not to come to the conclusion that Tampa’s oft inept offensive game made things a lot easier for them. Heading into the tilt, New York was allowing 3.41 goals per game; that sort of problem doesn’t fix itself over night. While the Lightning should definitely be happy that they secured two points, they made the path to victory much more treacherous than it probably had to be.
Moving on to look at the game, it’s worth noting that the Islanders outmatched the Lightning early on despite the fact that the boxscore showed a scoreless game through twenty. A seemingly constant wave of odd man rushes was all Ben Bishop had to look at and think about for large chunks of the opening frame (and the game, for that matter). Thankfully, the big man was just as solid on Tuesday as he’s been all season long.
As good as Bishop was early, his efforts alone weren’t enough to keep the fiery Islanders at bay. Just 11 seconds into the second period, with Radko Gudas in the penalty box for interference, Kyle Okposo slapped home his 11th goal of the season to give the Islanders a 1-0 lead. Assisted by John Tavares and Brock Nelson, Okposo’s goal was a big one for the home team.
Fran Nielsen extended New York’s lead at the 10:21 mark of the third period when he converted on yet another odd man rush for his 11th of the year. Michael Grabner, who really orchestrated the play with his speed, and Josh Bailey tallied assists on what looked at the time to be a backbreaking goal.
Of course, as every Lightning fan has learned this season, it’s foolish to consider Tampa Bay down and out. Jon Cooper has his club playing with fight, passion and drive; for that, he should be commended. Valtteri Filppula, who turned into the architect of the comeback victory, got the Lightning on the board with three minutes left in the game when he wired home a great wrist shot for his 11th goal of the year. Then, with less than four seconds left on the clock, Filppula battled hard in front of the net and notched his 12th tally of the season and second of the game to force overtime.
A scoreless overtime period gave way to the always intriguing shootout. Filppula and Nikita Kucherov both scored for the Lightning, while Ben Bishop stopped two of three New York shooters to secure the team’s second straight road victory. It wasn’t perfect, but come April nobody is going to ask how the Lightning grabbed two points on December 17th. The reality is that the team manufactured a positive result out of a less than stellar performance. That is exactly what good teams do.
The Lightning will now head back home to Tampa, where they'll take on the Nashville Predators on Thursday night.
As always, thanks for reading.
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