Islanders use fast start to win Game 1

TAMPA-- Shane Prince scored two first-period goals, and Thomas Greiss made 33 saves to help the New York Islanders defeat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-3 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Second Round at Amalie Arena on Wednesday.
Travis Hamonic, John Tavares and Cal Clutterbuck scored for the Islanders, who took a 4-1 lead in the second period.

Ondrej Palat, Nikita Kucherov and Valtteri Filppula scored for the Lightning, who had not played since winning their five-game, first-round series against the Detroit Red Wings on April 21.
New York completed its six-game series against the Florida Panthers on Sunday.
Game 2 of this best-of-7 series will be here Saturday (3 p.m. ET; NBC, SN, TVA Sports).

Ryan Strome won a puck battle against Matt Carle and found Prince for the shot that gave the Islanders a 2-1 lead at 17:28 of the first period.
"[Prince] brings a lot of energy," Strome said. "It's good to play with a guy like that, and to put a couple in and help the team out was a good feeling."
Prince's second goal came at 19:57 when he scored on a one-timer from the left side to give the Islanders a 3-1 lead. He became the first Islanders player to score multiple goals in the first period of a playoff game since Duane Sutter did so in Game 2 of the 1983 Patrick Division Finals against the New York Rangers, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
"It was a great play by Brock [Nelson], he started both plays there," Prince said. "[Strome] is a good playmaker and was able to find me. It's a pleasure playing with those guys and I'm just happy to be able to contribute."
Tavares' goal came on a power play at 8:59 in the second period when he scored on a wrist shot that beat Lightning goalie Ben Bishop top shelf for the 4-1 lead. Bishop was pulled for Andrei Vasilevskiy after the goal.

"What hurt us was giving up two goals in the last two and a half minutes of the first period," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "We were way too soft in those last few minutes."
Tampa Bay got within 4-3 with goals from Kucherov and Filppula in the third period.
Kucherov scored his sixth goal of the Stanley Cup Playoffs on a one-timer from the right circle off a cross-ice pass from Carle at 7:41. Filppula scored with 2:32 remaining when he got control of the puck during a scrum and put a rebound past Greiss.
"Honestly I thought we could have had the lead midway through the third, that's how many chances we had," Cooper said. "We pressed and pressed and pressed and got within one. There is something to build off of going forward."

Clutterbuck scored into an empty net with 55 seconds left.
"I thought we had some good jump on making plays and the way we were just playing hard every shift and making it tough on them," Tavares said. "I think we could have tried to stay a little more aggressive in the third, but they are a very good team and you knew they would respond."
Tampa Bay took a 1-0 lead at 3:05 of the first period on Palat's second goal of the playoffs. Jonathan Drouin skated down the left boards and found Palat trailing in the slot.
Hamonic tied the game 1-1 at 5:44 on a shot from the right circle that crept past Bishop with Kyle Okposo providing the screen.

Bishop made nine saves on 13 shots before being pulled. He was named a finalist for the Vezina Trophy earlier Wednesday.
"One of those nights where nothing goes your way," he said. "You just have to move on from it and we've got another game in a couple of days. It's not about the last game anymore, it's about the next one so I need to focus on that."
Islanders coach Jack Capuano was hit in the face with a deflected puck with 11:31 remaining in the third period but returned to the bench in the final two minutes with a cut on his nose and swelling around his eye.
"I'm good," he said. "A little bit of a headache, but other than that, it's a good victory for our team."