The Islanders would have played all night and all morning if that’s what it took, but they were not going to go away. They were not going to take the skate of shame out of the Edmonton bubble. Not after this night. Not after this game.
Not yet.
So yes, there will be a Game 6 in Edmonton on Thursday and the Islanders will still be one loss away from extinction in the conference finals. That has not changed. But here is what has changed: The Islanders will be two victories away from the Stanley Cup final.
Thursday became necessary when the Islanders recorded a 2-1 victory on Jordan Eberle’s goal off Anders Lee’s two-on-one feed at 12:30 of the second overtime to narrow Tampa Bay’s series lead to 3-2.
It was a victory achieved through a full commitment to playing the full 200×85 from the first moment to the last, one in which the Islanders contained the Lightning as well as they have yet, and one that ended with the Islanders’ struggling top line coming through with its first five-on-five goal of the series.
“It’s the biggest one I’ve gotten in a long time,” said Eberle, who scored a power-play goal early in Game 1 of the series, but hadn’t been able to finish at five-on-five despite numerous chances around the net. “We’ve battled hard to get where we are and we’re not finished.”
They could have been. Could have been finished when Anthony Beauvillier was hit with a four-minute double minor for high-sticking Mikhail Sergachev at 18:37 of the third. But the Islanders weren’t done. They were just getting started, killing off the penalty while limiting the Lightning to two shots on five attempts, the heavy lifting done by penalty-killers Josh Bailey, Brock Nelson, J-G Pageau, Cal Clutterbuck, Adam Pelech, Scott Mayfield, Andy Greene and Johnny Boychuk.
The match was contested in tight quarters. Through the first 80 minutes, the teams combined to block more shots (53, 28 by the Islanders) than they were able to get pucks through on net (49, 29 by Tampa Bay). But then the match began to open up. The pace somehow quickened. Chances developed.
Semyon Varlamov was on top of his game in the Islanders net and so, too, was Andrei Vasilevskiy at the other end. Indeed, it was Vasilevskiy who came up with the save of the night when he was able to get his glove up to deny Mat Barzal, in alone 5:50 into the first overtime.
The Link LonkSeptember 16, 2020 at 01:11PM
https://nypost.com/2020/09/16/islanders-showing-lightning-closing-out-series-wont-be-easy/
Islanders showing Lightning closing out series won't be easy - New York Post
https://news.google.com/search?q=easy&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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