Lightning crush Islanders with early barrage
NEW YORK -- The Tampa Bay Lightning bolted out to a three-goal first-period lead Tuesday night and scored three more times in the second period of a 6-1 rout of the New York Islanders at Barclays Center.
The resounding win capped a six-game road trip and snapped a three-game losing streak for the Lightning (6-4-0), which lost to the New York Rangers 6-1 in its previous game Sunday night.
Nikita Kucherov scored the first two goals for the Lightning before Steven Stamkos, Brian Boyle, J.T. Brown and Valtteri Filppula all added a goal apiece. Goalie Ben Bishop, who gave up all six goals to the Rangers, recorded 26 saves while Kucherov added a pair of assists.
Dennis Seidenberg scored in the final minute of the second period for the Islanders (4-6-0), who surrendered their most goals in a home game since moving to Barclays Center last season. A sparse announced crowd of 10,822 spent most of the final two periods booing the Islanders.
Starting goalie Thomas Greiss was chased after allowing three goals on 11 shots. Jaroslav Halak made 22 saves in relief.
The meeting was the first between the Lightning and Islanders since last spring's Eastern Conference semifinals, which Tampa Bay won in five games.
The Lightning chased Greiss in the first period by taking a 3-0 lead that could have easily been 4-0.
A brawl between Islanders defenseman Calvin De Haan and Tampa Bay right wing Ryan Callahan just 1:42 into the game set up the first of Kucherov's back-to-back power play goals. Kucherov opened the scoring at 3:21 when his shot from the right faceoff circle went under the stick of Seidenberg and under the glove of Greiss.
An apparent goal by Stamkos a little more than three minutes later was disallowed due to Tyler Johnson being offsides, but a delay of game n the Islanders' Ryan Strome led to Kucherov's second goal with 7:42 remaining. Kucherov, with Brock Nelson trying to hook him from behind and Johnny Boychuk lowering himself for a block, fired a shot that sailed under Greiss' right armpit.
Stamkos ended Greiss' night just 76 seconds later, when he took a pass from Slater Koekkoek as he descended upon Greiss and tapped it into the net.
The Lightning doubled the lead in the second period with a three-goal barrage in a span of 5:02. Boyle, skating backward toward Halak, made it 4-0 when he took a no-look pass from Callahan, collected the puck on his stick and, with his back still to the net, backhanded a shot into the upper right corner of the net 6:17 into the period.
Brown picked up a loose puck at center ice and scored a shorthanded breakaway goal at the 9:30 mark. The Islanders might have suffered their greatest indignity just 1:51 later, when Nick Leddy deflected a shot by Filppula that nobody in the crease, including Halak, could clear. Instead, the puck bounced into the net to increase the Lightning's lead to 6-0.
Seidenberg ensured the Islanders would not be shut out by firing a slap shot past Bishop with 29.6 seconds left in the period.
NOTES: The Islanders scratched C Mathew Barzal (illness) as well as G Jean-Francois Berube and C Alan Quine. ... G Jaroslav Halak backed up Thomas Greiss for the second time in as many games since his agent Tweeted his displeasure with the Islanders' three-goalie system and the amount of practice time it affords each netminder. ... Islanders C Casey Cizikas played in his 300th career game. ... The Lightning scratched D Nikita Nesterov and C Cedric Paquette. ... On Monday, the Lightning recalled D Slater Koekkoek from Syracuse of the American Hockey League while reassigning D Matt Taormina to the same affiliate. ... The six-game road trip was the longest for the Lightning since a six-game trek in December 2009, but the first of two such trips this season (also Jan. 16-26).