Lightning 2, Islanders 1
NEW YORK -- Jason Garrison scored 1:34 into overtime Friday night as the Tampa Bay Lightning took a commanding 3-1 series lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals with a 2-1 win over the New York Islanders at Barclays Center.
The Lightning, the reigning Eastern Conference champions, are one win away from advancing to the Eastern Conference Final. Game 5 is scheduled for Sunday afternoon at Amalie Arena in Tampa.
Garrison's goal came at the end of a frantic sequence in which Islanders defenseman Calvin De Haan lost his stick. Garrison fired a slap shot from just in front of the Stanley Cup Playoffs logo to give Tampa Bay its first lead of the night
Kyle Okposo scored in the first period for the Islanders. Goalie Thomas Greiss made 22 saves in an outing briefly interrupted by a broken skate in the second period.
Nikita Kucherov scored in the third period for the Lightning. Goalie Ben Bishop recorded 27 saves.
Okposo scored just 4:20 after faceoff following an impressive sequence in which Frans Nielsen passed the puck to Nikolay Kulemin, who was stationed to the right of the net. Kulemin made a tape pass to Okposo, who beat Bishop.
The Islanders came within centimeters of doubling the lead with 10:49 left, when Ryan Strome's shot from point-blank range disappeared beneath a squatting Bishop. The call of no goal stood because replays couldn't show if the puck ever crossed the line.
Bishop made a few more impressive saves in the first, when the Islanders outshot the Lightning 16-6. But the Islanders got just one shot off during a four-minute power play generated by a pair of roughing minors on Ryan Callahan late in the period.
The second period was interrupted when Greiss had to leave to fix a broken skate at the 1:33 mark. Backup Jean-Francois Berube made his playoff debut while Greiss was in the locker room and stopped both shots he faced. Greiss returned to a standing ovation with 13:40 remaining.
The third period also began -- or didn't begin -- in unusual fashion. Faceoff was delayed for about 10 minutes as a maintenance crew fixed a loose board near the Lightning net.
The Lightning finally scored the equalizer off a broken play behind the Islanders' net. New York defenseman Nick Leddy lost the puck, which was picked up by Tampa Bay center Tyler Johnson. He passed to Kucherov, whose shot fluttered over Greiss' right arm.
Both teams had chances to win the game in the final 70 seconds. The Islanders turned the puck over deep in their zone and Greiss gloved a shot by Alex Killorn with 1:02 left.
Kulemin charged in on Bishop with about 20 seconds remaining, but the puck ticked off his skate and Bishop swiped it away.
NOTES: Among the Islanders' 15 scratches were C Mikhail Grabovski (concussion), G Jaroslav Halak (lower body) and C Anders Lee (broken leg) as well as RW Alan Quine, who scored the winning goal in Game 5 of the first-round series against the Florida Panthers, and D Marek Zidlicky. D Ryan Pulock returned after missing six games with an upper body injury, while RW Ryan Strome was active after being a healthy scratch in Game 3. ... The Islanders have played four overtime games in a postseason for just the fourth time in franchise history. ... Among the Lightning's 17 scratches were their five injured players: RW J.T. Brown (upper body), D Matthew Carle (undisclosed), RW Erik Condra (upper body), C Steven Stamkos (blood clot) and D Anton Stralman (broken leg). ... Stamkos and Stralman each skated Friday but neither is likely to play this series.