Lightning 7, Islanders 4
TAMPA, Fla. -- After losing defenseman Anton Stralman to injury early in Friday's game, the Tampa Bay Lightning got three goals from defensemen in the third period, pulling away for a 7-4 win over the New York Islanders at Amalie Arena, moving back into first place in the Atlantic Division.
Tied 4-4 in the third, Tampa Bay (43-26-5) got two goals in a 23-second span, with Tyler Johnson giving them the lead on a rebound for his 13th goal of the season, then defenseman Jason Garrison -- who already had two assists -- scoring the sixth goal for a two-goal cushion. Another defenseman, Victor Hedman, added an empty-net goal with 1:25 to set a season high for scoring for Tampa Bay.
Tampa Bay had been 0-6-2 when Ben Bishop allows four goals or more, and the two points put them even with idle Florida for the division lead, with the tiebreaker advantage.
The Islanders (39-25-9) remain the first wild card in the Eastern Conference with nine games remaining, two points ahead of Detroit and Philadelphia -- the six goals allowed by goalie Thomas Greiss matches the team's most this season.
Tampa Bay had taken a 4-3 lead in the third on a goal by defenseman Andrej Sustr with 13:57 left in the game, but the Islanders answered just 19 seconds later to tie the game. Nikolay Kulemin fired a shot past Bishop to tie the game at 4-4 with 13:38 left. It was Kulemin's seventh goal of the season.
The Islanders trailed 3-1 briefly in the second period before rallying back to tie the game 3-3 entering the third. The tying goal came with 3:42 left in the period as defenseman Johnny Boychuk fired a long shot from the blue line that caromed off defenseman Andrej Sustr's skate in front of the goal. It was Boychuk's eighth goal of the season.
Tampa Bay led 3-1 after Steven Stamkos scored his team-best 35th goal off a rebound on a long shot by defenseman Jason Garrison with 14:58 left in the second. Only 23 seconds later, the Islanders pulled back within a goal as Shane Prince scored unassisted -- his fifth on the season -- to cut the lead to 3-2.
Tampa Bay jumped ahead with two goals in a span of nine seconds in the first period. Nikita Kucherov redirected a shot from Alex Killorn to tie the game at 1-1 with his 29th goal and nine seconds later, Vladislav Namestnikov followed with his 14th goal for a 2-1 lead. New York had a bad clear from behind the goal and Namestnikov had an easy shot for the lead.
Stralman went down with an injury to his left leg when he was tangled with Islanders left winger Anders Lee in front of the Tampa goal. He tripped and his skate caught on the way down, twisting his left leg. He had to be helped off the ice by teammates.
Shortly after and just as a power play ended, the Islanders took the lead as Brock Nelson scored his 25th goal off a pass from Ryan Strome. New York got their third power play of the period shortly after, but was unable to capitalize.
NOTES: Both teams continue to play without key players. The Lightning again were without RW Ryan Callahan, who was sidelined for a third game with a lower-body injury, and C Valtteri Filppula (fifth, upper body). Tampa Bay also had D Nikita Nesterov as a healthy scratch. ... The Islanders have played 10 games without D Marek Zidlicky (upper body) and five games without C Mikhail Grabovski (upper body). RW Steve Bernier and D Brian Strait were healthy scratches. ... The Islanders will host the Lightning in 10 days, and the teams could meet again in the postseason. The Lightning are battling for a division title and the Islanders are in wild-card contention.