The Tampa Bay Lightning got some magic on Wednesday night as they defeated the New York Islanders 2-1 on Wednesday night to give the Lightning a 2-0 series lead over the Islanders in the best of seven Eastern Conference Finals.
The Islanders started very well in this game in what would prove to be a physical game throughout. Matt Martin scored just 1:24 into the first period to give the Islanders an early 1-0 lead. After Alex Killorn was called for game misconduct for boarding just 5:55 in and kicked out of the game, the Lightning had a huge penalty kill in which they did not allow New York to score.
Still tied 1-1 into the third period, this game started to turn when the Islanders got a five on three opportunity after the Lightning were called for holding against Ryan McDonagh and Cedric Paquette at the 9:10 mark. The Lightning got through that stretch without allowing the Islanders to score - and the game would come down the stretch tied 1-1.
It appeared this game would be heading to overtime - until Nikita Kucherov came through with a magical goal with just nine seconds to go to lift the Lightning to a win. After that the Bolts killed off the final nine seconds and took a 2-0 series lead with the 2-1 victory.
Andrei Vasilevskiy went 27-f0r-28 in net to pick up the win, while Semyon Varlamov went 19-for-21 in net for the Islanders to take the loss. The teams now have Thursday off and will meet in game three on Friday night. Puck drop in that game from Edmonton is scheduled for 8 PM, with pregame coverage beginning at 7 PM on News Radio WFLA.