Yesterday’s Game

New York Islanders 2, Tampa Bay Lightning 4 (series tied 1-1)

No one was expecting the Lightning to go out easily after falling behind in game 1, and sure enough, they came back with a dominant game last night. Tampa scored the first goal of the game, but the Islanders responded with a goal of their own before the end of the period. One of the most controversial plays of the game happened at about the 13 minute mark, when Brayden Point received a penalty after being cross-checked into goaltender Semyon Varlamov. It’s great that the NHL is taking goaltender safety seriously, but it’s really hard to see how this is Point’s fault.

Point is called for goaltender interference after Pelech shoves him into his goaltender. pic.twitter.com/b2GsuTJ4Qh

— Shayna (@hayyyshayyy) June 16, 2021

The Lightning pulled ahead 2-1 in the second period, and this was another controversial play, because as it turns out, they had too many players on the ice at the time! I’m assuming one of them was on LTIR and that’s why it doesn’t count.

Two more Tampa goals in the third put the game fully out of reach for the Islanders (barring a Pageau hat trick, but I’m pretty sure you need to be wearing red, white and blue for Pageau to do that to you). They scored one goal right at the end of the game, but it wasn’t enough, and the Islanders fell 4-2 to the Lightning. Stats here.

Tonight’s Game

Montreal Canadiens @ Vegas Golden Knights - 9:00 PM ET (VGK leads the series 1-0)

Most people expect Montreal to get pummeled in this series, but of course, that’s also what people predicted in rounds 1 and 2. Sure enough, Vegas did put a stop to Montreal’s momentum in game 1, handing them their first loss after a 7 game winning streak. Will the Habs surprise us again by tying the series. I sure hope not.