@jayRecher

It was one of those nights where you came to a hockey game and it ended with a football score.

Steven Stamkos & Alex Killorn each scored two goals and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 21 saves for his fourth career playoff shutout as the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the New York Islanders 8-0 in Game 5 of their best-of-7 Stanley Cup Semifinal matchup on Monday night at Amalie Arena.

Tampa Bay now leads the series 3-2.

Yanni Gourde, Ondrej Palat, Brayden Point & Luke Schenn also scored for the Lightning.

Tampa Bay came out absolutely flying in the 1st period and it didn't take long for them to take the lead.

Stamkos' centering feed to Killorn bounced right back to him and he fired it into the open net just 45 seconds into the contest to give Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead.

With that goal Stamkos passed Martin St. Louis for sole possession of the third-most playoff points in franchise history with 69.

Somewhere Rob Gronkowski is smiling.

The Bolts did not slow down and kept coming at the New York defense in waves.

Gourde made it 2-0 when his pass across the middle of the ice went off the stick of Islanders defenseman Andy Greene and past Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov at 11:04.

At 15:27, a point shot from David Savard went off of Killorn and trickled past the New York netminder to make it 3-0. Varlamov was then replaced in net by Ilya Sorokin.

The Islanders started the 2nd period much better getting some pretty good chances, but Vasilevskiy came up with some big saves time and time again.

Stamkos pushed the lead to 4-0 with a power play goal from his office at 5:42.

Palat tipped a Savard shot at 15:43 to put Tampa Bay up by five and Killorn got a piece of a Hedman blast on the power play at 17:53 to make it six.

As the Lightning kept pouring it on, the game just got uglier and uglier, especially at the end of the 2nd period when Mathew Barzal cross checked Jan Rutta in the face and was given a five-minute major & a game misconduct. Rutta did not return.

On the ensuing power play, Point scored from the slot at 1:59 to give him goals in eight straight games to make it 7-0.

And then a seemingly harmless shot from Schenn at 12:05 bounced off of Ryan Pulock and past Sorokin to push it to 8-0.

Varlamov stopped 13 of the 16 shots he saw on the evening. Sorokin stopped 19 of 24.

*****

SCORING SUMMARY

1st Period

Tampa Bay - Stamkos - (Killorn, Cirelli) - 0:45
Tampa Bay - Gourde - (Coleman) - 11:04
Tampa Bay - Killorn - (Savard) - 15:27

2nd Period

Tampa Bay - PPG - Stamkos - (Hedman, Kucherov) - 5:42
Tampa Bay - Palat - (Savard, Kucherov) - 15:43
Tampa Bay - PPG - Killorn - (Hedman, Point) - 17:53

3rd Period

Tampa Bay - PPG - Point - (Kucherov, Stamkos) - 1:59
Tampa Bay - Schenn - (Maroon, Colton) - 12:05

*****

PENALTY SUMMARY

1st Period

NONE

2nd Period

New York - Nelson - (Hooking) - 4:44
New York - Clutterbuck - (Interference) - 9:33
New York - Palmieri - (Tripping) - 12:40
New York - MAJOR - Martin - (Fighting) - 17:08
New York - MAJOR - Schenn - (Fighting) - 17:08
New York - Pageau - (Tripping) - 17:31
Tampa Bay - McDonagh - (Cross Checking) - 18:41
New York - Pageau - (Roughing) - 20:00
Tampa Bay - Cirelli - (Roughing) - 20:00
New York - MAJOR - Barzal - (Cross Checking) - 20:00
New York - Barzal - (Game Misconduct) - 20:00

3rd Period

New York - Martin - (Roughing) - 16:30
New York - Martin - (10-Minute Misconduct) - 16:30
New York - Mayfield - (10-Minute Misconduct) - 16:30
New York - MAJOR - Pelech - (Fighting) - 16:30
Tampa Bay - MAJOR - Gourde - (Fighting) - 16:30
Tampa Bay - Goodrow - (Roughing) - 16:30

*****

What's Next For The Bolts : The Lightning and Islanders square off in Game 6 of this Stanley Cup Semifinal matchup on Wednesday night on Long Island at Nassau Coliseum. Puck drop is slated for 8:00pm with the pregame show starting at 7:00pm on NewsRadio WFLA.

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