"The boys battled hard tonight," Eberle said. "We had some moments in the d-zone, especially in overtime where we had a broken stick, collapsed and just held on, waited for our chance. To score that, continue to move on and give ourselves another chance in a couple of days is huge."
The Isles had to persevere through their fair share of adversity in the do-or-die Game 5. Tampa outshot the Isles 37-24 in four-and-a-half periods, with the Isles six second-period shots being the high-water mark. The Isles didn't record their 12th shot on goal until the 8:35 mark of the third period.
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They challenged and overturned Carter Verhaeghe's second period goal that would have broken a 1-1 tie, a big moment whose impact only loomed larger as the game wore on. They killed off Anthony Beauvillier's four-minute high-sticking penalty at the end of the third period, easily the most tense four minutes of the Islanders season.
In OT, they got big efforts from up and down the lineup. Semyon Varlamov got a toe on a Nikita Kucherov point shot on the four-minute kill. JG Pageau - who took 43 faceoffs - laid out for a big block on a Ryan McDonagh shot at the end of the first overtime. Scott Mayfield played a solid minute with a wrong-handed stick, courtesy of Lee, who played without one before laying down for another big-time block on Zach Bogosian.
"It's just guys putting their body on the line to win," said Johnny Boychuk, whose door prize for playing his first game since Aug. 1 was a Kucherov one-timer to the stomach. "You do anything to get the win and we did. We just have to put it behind us and look forward to the next one."
All those little plays helped hold the fort until the Isles caught their break with Shattenkirk's whiff. Like they have all season, the Isles seized their opportunity and made their opponent pay, this time spoiling Tampa's perfect 5-0 playoff OT record and keeping their season alive.
Head Coach Barry Trotz said before the game that the Islanders would have to focus on each individual shift if they want to extend their season and attempt a comeback. They did so on Tuesday night and earned the right to play again Thursday.
"Our guys didn't waver, they just kept grinding and grinding and you can get some energy from it, no question," Trotz said. "We didn't give up and that's a great sign going forward."