@jayRecher
Brayden Point, Ondrej Palat, Jan Rutta & Victor Hedman each scored and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 24 saves as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the New York Islanders 4-2 on Tuesday night at Amalie Arena.
Their best-of-seven Stanley Cup Semifinals matchup is now tied 1-1.
Nikita Kucherov added three assists for Tampa Bay.
Point gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 8:58, roofing a shot over Islanders netminder Semyon Varlamov after a beautiful behind-the-back feed from Kucherov behind the net.
Tampa Bay's star center was also involved in the equalizer, which was marred in controversy.
With Point racing down the middle of the ice and the puck at his feet, he was cross checked by New York's Adam Pelech & went crashing into Varlamov. Point's head smacked into the crossbar and to make matters worse, was assessed a minor penalty for goalie interference.
Brock Nelson scored 19 seconds into the man-advantage to tie the score at 1-1, and the fans at Amalie vociferously voiced their displeasure with the officiating crew. Varlamov was sent to the locker room and was relieved by Ilya Sorokin, but the veteran goaltender did return for the start of the 2nd period.
The play was pretty even in the middle stanza, until the Lightning took the lead at 13:15.
Victor Hedman fired a long pass from the Tampa Bay defensive zone to spring Kucherov streaking into the New York zone. Nikita worked his magic to avoid the Islanders pressure, found Palat in the middle of the ice, and Ondrej snapped one past Varlamov to give the Lightning a 2-1 lead.
Rutta scored his first playoff goal -- and the first goal for a Lightning defenseman in these playoffs -- at the 2:16 mark of the 3rd period on a rocket from the point following some solid work from Barclay Goodrow in the Islanders zone to make it 3-1.
Hedman joined in on the fun and scored his first goal of the postseason on the power play at 9:17.
Mat Barzal got the Islanders within two with a goal at 16:44 but that's all New York could muster against the Bolts in this one.
Varlamov had 29 saves for New York. Sorokin stopped all 6 shots he saw in relief.
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SCORING SUMMARY
1st Period
- Tampa Bay - Point - (Kucherov, Savard) - 8:58
- New York - PPG - Nelson - (Unassisted) - 13:30
2nd Period
- Tampa Bay - Palat - (Kucherov, Hedman) - 13:15
3rd Period
- Tampa Bay - Rutta - (Goodrow, Coleman) - 2:16
- Tampa Bay - PPG - Hedman - (Kucherov) - 9:17
- New York - Barzal - (Eberle, Leddy) - 16:44
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PENALTY SUMMARY
1st Period
- New York - Mayfield - (Roughing) - 3:15
- Tampa Bay - Maroon - (Holding) - 3:15
- New York - Pulock - (High Sticking) - 4:16
- Tampa Bay - Stamkos - (Slashing) - 9:23
- Tampa Bay - Point - (Interference) - 13:10
- New York - MAJOR - Martin - (Fighting) - 13:45
- Tampa Bay - MAJOR - Maroon - (Fighting) - 13:45
- New York - Komarov - (Interference) - 16:28
2nd Period
- Tampa Bay - Coleman - (Slashing) - 3:29
3rd Period
- New York - Zajac - (Interference) - 4:41
- New York - Zajac - (Slashing) - 8:09
- New York - Komarov - (Unsportsmanlike Conduct) - 10:55
- New York - Komarov - (10-Minute Misconduct) - 10:55
- Tampa Bay - Gourde - (Roughing) - 10:55
- Tampa Bay - Cernak - (Slashing) - 11:09
- New York - Beauvillier - (Roughing) - 13:50
- New York - Zajac - (Roughing) - 20:00
- New York - Zajac - (Roughing) - 20:00
- Tampa Bay - Goodrow - (Roughing) - 20:00
- Tampa Bay - Cirelli - (Roughing) - 20:00
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What's Next For The Bolts : The Lightning & Islanders square off in Game 3 of this Stanley Cup Semifinals matchup on Thursday night at Nassau Coliseum. Puck drop is slated for 8:00pm with the pregame show starting at 7:00pm on NewsRadio WFLA.
PHOTO : Getty Images