As much as the Islanders liked their game in the first half of the contest, they found themselves in a precarious position, trailing Tampa 2-0 on a first-period goal from Brayden Point and a second-period tally from Anthony Cirelli.
Point opened the scoring for the Lightning, lighting the lamp for a ninth-consecutive game. The Lightning's star scorer blocked Adam Pelech's clearing attempt behind the net, skated out front and was able to backhand an Alex Killorn rebound past Semyon Varlamov at 16:02.
Down 1-0, the Islanders had a prime opportunity to even up the contest, getting a minute long five-on-three power play in the second period. The Islanders had a couple of looks, but couldn't capitalize, with Andrei Vasilevskiy swallowing up a Ryan Pulock blast and the Bolts laying out for a pair of blocks.
ISLES-BOLTS GAME 6
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The missed five-on-three opportunity proved to be costly, as Cirelli made it 2-0 Lightning at 12:36, taking a stretch pass from Ondrej Palat and beating Varlamov five-hole off the rush. Cirelli's goal was the Lightning's 12th consecutive score, dating back to the third period of Game 4, and to make matters worse, the team who had scored first had not trailed in any of the previous five wins.
Regardless, the Islanders remained unfazed.
"We're obviously a resilient group and we had a lot of time on the clock still," Mathew Barzal said. "So, just stuck with it and was fortunate enough to get two goals and tie it up and obviously win in overtime."
The Islanders knew they just needed one goal to ignite their offense and rekindle the energy in a boisterous Coliseum. Jordan Eberle delivered, cutting the deficit to 2-1 with 5:38 to play in the second period, taking a Barzal feed and beating Vasilevskiy with a mid-range backhander to revive the Isles.
"We needed it," Trotz said of Eberle's goal. "The way we were playing, I felt that we were going to be fine. They made it 2-0. Then, the game teeters a little bit, if they make it 3-0 it gets pretty daunting. But that was a big goal for us. We're back to square one as we were down a goal after the first period."