SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
If they could, the stunned New York Islanders would have sent a third goalkeeper onto the ice at Rogers Place Arena in Edmonton Alberta, but they employed their only two goalies upon getting routed Monday night by the Tampa Bay Lighting, 8-2, in the National Hockey League Eastern Conference finals.
This opening game was decided early as Tampa Bay, which turned back the Boston Bruins in five games, scored first, and after the Isles tied it a 1-1, it was all Lightning scoring three times in the opening period, twice in the second, and three times again in the third period, when New York scored its other goal.
The Islanders had come into the conference for the first time in 27 years after ousting the top-seeded Philadelphia Flyers in seven games. Maybe they still had a hangover after their 3-1 series lead was forced into a deciding seventh game won handily 4-0.
No matter, for Less than three minutes in, Yanni Gourde scored his first of two goals. Not long after, Jordan Eberle tied the score, and that was the closest the Isles came. Victor Hedman and Brayden Point brought a 3-1 advantage after one period. In the second period, Gourde scored again and it was 5-1 after Ondrej Palat found the net.
Midway through the second period, New York changed keepers, Semyon Varlamon for starter Thomas Greiss, who was in goal in the 4-0 zip over Philly in game seven.
But this time, it was after he gave up three goals and made nine saves. As for Varlamon, he allowed the remaining five goals and had 25 saves.
For Tampa Bay, Andrei Vasilevsky played the entire game and came up with 24 saves while giving up the two goals.
Nikita Kucherov also scored for the Lightning and added a quartet of assists. The remaining goal came from Ryan McDonagh. Point added three assists. the same as Kevin Shattenkirk, while Hedman had a pair, and there was one each off the sticks of Blake Coleman. Pat Maroon, Luke Schenn, and Mikhail Sergachen.
The other Islander goal came from Nick Leddy with the game already decided, and Anders Lee came up with two assists and Mathew Barzal had one. New York was penalized eight times and spent 22 minutes in the penalty box. Tampa Bay was called for six and brought 12 minutes in the box. The Lightning took 34 shots, the Isles 24.
On today’s schedule, it’s the Western Conference finals matching the No.1-seeded Las Vegas Golden Knights against the 4th-seeded Dallas Stars, with Dallas blanking Las Vegas, 1-0, in game one.
The Golden Knights had to go seven games before getting past the 6th-seeded Vancouver Canucks, and the Stars took the same route in topping the 3rd-seeded Colorado Avalanche in seven.
