The Tampa Bay Lightning needed to bounce back, and bounce back they did on Saturday night against the New York Islanders at Amalie Arena. After losing two straight contests, the Bolts scored five goals against New York on their way to a 5-2 victory. The win moves Tampa’s record to 12-4-2, which is good enough for second place overall in the NHL standings.
Despite the fact that they came out of the gates hot and generated a few shots on goal in the game’s first few moments, the Lightning actually fell behind early thanks to a goal from New York’s Brock Nelson. Against the run of play, and on his team’s first shot of the game, Nelson was able to free himself from Lightning coverage and fire the puck past Ben Bishop for the score.
The Lightning answered right back only a minute later when Ryan Callahan beat Chad Johnson for his sixth goal of the season. A deft play by Jason Garrison at the point got the puck through to the net, and Callahan was right there to send the rebound home.
With two high-flying teams in action, the fact that the first period turned into a bit of a shootout probably didn’t surprise anyone. Josh Bailey scored at the 11:22 mark of the first to put his Islanders back up by one. Unlike the first New York goal, which Bishop might want back, Bailey’s goal was a swift tip-in from the slot that really gave the Lightning goalie no chance.
The first period’s goal scoring parade wasn’t finished there.
A beautiful power play goal from Valtteri Filppula and another goal from youngster Cedric Paquette ultimately helped put the Lightning up 3-2 through one period of play. Filppula’s goal came at the tail end of a five-on-three advantage, and was assisted beautifully by Garrison and Steven Stamkos; Paquette had help from Alex Killorn and Vladislav Namestnikov.
While the fans in attendance at Amalie probably enjoyed the back-and-forth, defense optional style that defined the first period of play, you can bet that neither Jack Capuano nor Jon Cooper was overly impressed with the state of things. Neither goalie was spectacular. The defense on both sides was sloppy. Thankfully for the coaches, things settled down and tightened up as the game moved into the second and third periods.
Down by one with 40 minutes to play, the Islanders still had plenty of time to use their potent offense to get back into the game. Their hopes were derailed just 1:39 into the second period when Tyler Johnson scored his sixth of the year, with help from his ‘kid’ linemates Ondrej Palat and Nikita Kucherov. That goal gives Johnson 19 points through 18 games this season, which puts him squarely in the conversation with the NHL’s top-10 scorers.
Unlike in the first period, the Islanders weren’t able to beat Ben Bishop in the second period, and so the Bolts entered the final frame with a 4-2 lead.
New York turned the tables a little bit in that third period and had a number of good shifts that resulted in a decent amount of shot attempts. That's score effects in action. Even so, Bishop stood strong and kept his team alive. The Lightning’s Radko Gudas scored the dagger at the 15:34 mark to put his team up 5-2, all but ending any hope for an Islanders comeback. Callahan was credited with the only apple on Gudas’s first of the year. Don’t look now, but the former Ranger now has 6 goals and 13 points in 13 games this season. He’s bringing a ton of value to the ice each and every single night.
While they weren’t perfect, the Lightning did more than enough to grab the win and two points on Saturday. They were very, very solid. After losing two straight, that must be a good feeling. The team doesn’t have much time to celebrate, however, as they must travel to New York for a date with Marty St. Louis and the Rangers on Monday.
As always, thanks for reading.
Michael Stuart has been the Tampa Bay Lightning writer for HockeyBuzz since 2012. Visit his archive to read more or follow him on Twitter. 
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