Islanders play better but lose Game 2 to Lightning in Eastern Final

The New York Islanders did a complete 180-degree turn in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Final on Wednesday. They played to their identity and put themselves in a position to even their best-of-7 series against the Tampa Bay Lightning after being blown out 48 hours earlier.

But they failed to score on four power plays, including a five-minute major in the first period and a 5-on-3 advantage in the third. Aside from forward Matt Martin's fifth goal of the postseason, they were unable to solve Andrei Vasilevskiy, who made 27 saves for Tampa Bay and showed numerous times why he won the Vezina Trophy last season as the NHL's top goalie and is a finalist for a third straight year.
The missed opportunities proved costly, and Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov broke a tie with nine seconds left for a 2-1 win against the Islanders at Rogers Place in Edmonton.
It's a huge blow for New York, especially after coming up with the response it was expecting following an 8-2 loss in Game 1 in Edmonton, the hub city for the conference finals and Stanley Cup Final, on Monday. That game was played two days after a 4-0 win against the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 7 of the second round at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.
"We've lost some overtime games, we've lost in different ways that have punched us in the stomach a few times in the last series. This one's a little shot to the gut," Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. "Every time we've done that, we've got up. We had our energy, we had our game today and we just didn't get the result. I liked a lot about our game, other than probably the last 30 seconds of that game, so we'll just have to improve upon it even more, and go after the next game.
"The first game wasn't us. That was a team that was tired, and today we got our energy back and we'll be ready for the next game. This group has a lot of character, a lot of fight in them."
It will be a challenge to overcome such a loss, one that has New York trailing the series with Game 3 in Edmonton on Friday (8 p.m. ET; USA, CBC, SN, TVAS).
It won't be easy for the Islanders to forget about the five-minute power play they were awarded after Lightning forward Alex Killorn was given a major penalty for boarding Brock Nelson at 5:55 of the first period. Their best chance came 12 seconds into the man-advantage, when Vasilevskiy managed to get his glove on Mathew Barzal's wrist shot from the right circle with traffic in front.

And they'll certainly be spending some time over the next two days thinking about the two-man advantage they had for 38 seconds in the third period, when they couldn't muster a shot on goal with Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh and forward Cedric Paquette in the penalty box.
"When you have a 5-on-3, you want to capitalize," said Nelson, who missed the remainder of the first period after the hit from Killorn but returned in the second. "You have like 38 seconds, so plenty of time. You're hoping to get a look there. That can be a difference-maker in the third.
"It stings giving one up with [nine] seconds left, there's no denying that. With that said, we played a pretty good game to give ourselves a chance. We have to find a way to turn the page, kind of build off that, feed into some more of the game plan and some structural things to give ourselves a chance to win the next game. You just have to focus on that and winning that next one. That's the biggest thing we can do."
The power play will have to contribute if the Islanders plan on getting back in this series and advancing to the Cup Final for the first time since 1984. Trotz said he believes they're looking for that extra pass when they need to fire away and have more bodies in front against one of the best goalies in the NHL.
"We're trying to get a little bit too fine I think," Trotz said. "Sometimes you've got to get a little greasy, and we were trying to pass it in the net tonight a little bit. When we had a few good looks, Vasilevskiy was pretty big. We had a 5-on-3 and didn't take advantage of it. It was only 38 seconds, but they got through that.
"We had some chances. We've had some breakaways we haven't scored on, we've had some 2-on-1s we haven't executed quite on, or tried to pass it on net. We're going to have to shoot the puck more and get greasy."
The Islanders never trailed in a series this postseason until Monday. Now the mountain has a steeper climb, especially against a Lightning team that found a way to win Game 2 despite being without Killorn after his penalty and forward Brayden Point, who did not play in the third period.
"We've believed that we can win this series, and we still do," Martin said. "It's a good effort. Unfortunately we came up short, but you play like that more often than not, you're going to win. Some positives we can take from this, but obviously not the result we wanted."