After such an emotional night at Madison Square Garden on Monday, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the Tampa Bay Lightning fumbled their way to a 5-2 loss on Tuesday against the New York Islanders.
Thanks in large part to some strong early play from their goalie, former Islander Evgeni Nabokov, the Bolts actually managed to earn themselves a 1-0 lead at 11:53 of the first period. Alex Killorn, standing on the doorstep, banged a rebound past Jaroslav Halak for the score; Jason Garrison and Jonathan Drouin were credited with the assists.
It’s probably fair to suggest that Tampa did not deserve the lead they had heading into the first intermission. Clearly the hockey gods took note, as the Islanders were rewarded in the second period with goals, goals, and more goals.
The scoring party started only 39 seconds into the middle stanza. With his teammate Thomas Hickey in the box for interference, Cal Clutterbuck picked off an Anton Stralman feed and wired the puck past Nabokov to knot things up at one. How often does Stralman give the puck up like that? Not very often. The hockey gods were at work, giving New York the help they deserved.
Mikhail Grabovski put the Islanders up 2-1 at the 12:23 mark of that middle frame when he, Frans Nielsen, and Kyle Okposo completed a beautiful passing play in the Lightning zone. It was a picturesque display of what New York’s offense has to offer. Grabovski made no mistake converting his fourth of the year.
Things went from bad to worse for the Bolts about one minute later when Ryan Strome scored what would eventually be the game-winning goal. With help from Calvin de Haan, Strome cut to the slot and fired the puck past Nabokov with ease.
Being down 3-1 after two periods isn’t the best situation for a team, but there was still an ounce or two of hope left in the bellies of the Tampa faithful. That was until Brock Nelson scored his ninth of the season just 36 seconds into the third period. Just like that it was a 4-1 game, and there wasn’t even a hint of a breeze left in the Lightning’s sails. Backbreaker.
Ondrej Palat and Casey Cizikas traded goals before the final buzzer rang, but they proved to be rather inconsequential. The result was a 5-2 Lightning loss, and another two points gained for the talented Islanders. The Bolts don’t have too much time to focus on this loss, as they’ll be in Toronto on Thursday for a game with the Maple Leafs. The same Maple Leafs who dropped a 9-2 decision to the Nashville Predators on Tuesday.
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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