Islanders Beat Lightning 5-1 On The Back of Semyon Varlamov

The New York Islanders took their talents to South Beach and beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-1 with a dominant performance in goal.

The first period of play was one that the New York Islanders would absolutely take. They may not have scored, but they certainly passed the eye test. They won the Corsi battle, with a 51.72 CF% and had seven scoring chances for.

In period two the Corsi was completely flipped. The Isles CF% would dip all the way down to 28.13. Based on that, you’d assume the Lightning exploded for a dominant period. That wasn’t the case, at least on the scoreboard.

It was top line winger, Ross Johnston who was able to get the Islanders on the board first. Just two minutes later, the Islanders would get a short-handed chance, and Josh Bailey made the Lightning pay.

Brock Nelson would get another chance on this same penalty kill. McElhinney was able to stop that one though, keeping it a two-goal game. At the 15:35 mark of the period, the Lightning got one back thanks to Steven Stamkos.

It was a beautiful goal, getting the Lightning back in the game. After two, it was 2-1 with the Isles somehow leading despite Tampa controlling the play. That story continued in period three.

For the first five minutes, it was all Tampa. The Isles didn’t register a shot for nearly four minutes and Varly had to make highlight save after highlight save in the early part of the period, keeping the Islanders in this game.

Brock Nelson would get his 10th of the year at 7:31. It appeared like the Lightning would cut the lead thanks to Victor Hedman but after a brief review, it was deemed offside.

Minutes later, Nelson added his second of the period to put the Islanders up 4-1.

The Islanders would go back on the power play for the second time tonight, and Anders Lee was able to deflect home a goal to improve the Islanders lead to 5-1. It was Lee’s first power play goal on the season and a vintage look for the captain.

The Islanders would win this one 5-1, after going long periods of time getting dominated. Hockey is a weird sport, man, but a win is a win. The Islanders improve to 20-7-2 with their next game coming on Thursday.

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Winners: Semyon Varlamov, Brock Nelson, Josh Bailey

Losers: Curtis McElhinney, Mikhail Sergachev, Michael Dal Colle