Islanders pull out gutsy win in overtime thanks to Anthony Beauvillier

The New York Islanders pulled out a gutsy Game 6 win to push this series back to Tampa Bay for a decisive Game 7. The character of this team was on full display tonight, just as Barry Trotz indicated.

Heck even Casey Cizikas said you’d see a different team tonight. And he was right. This was a very different team than the one that lost 8-0 in Game 5 back in Tampa.

New York Islanders get a Game 7 with overtime win in Game 6

Remember the Lightning were up 2-0 12:36 into the second period. Half of the game had been played and the Tampa Bay Lightning had a controlling lead over the Islanders. I don’t care how positive you are, you were worried.

But only a few minutes later, a man who had been missing this entire series, scored his first of the series. It was none other than Jordan Eberle on the backhand of course!

That was Eberle’s first goal since Game 5 of the Boston series. The islanders desperately needed production from Jordan Eberle. They’ve been getting performances from Barzal, but they weren’t going anywhere without his linemate chipping in.

On Barzal, he was the creator in chief with the Eberle goal and proved to be the creator in chief once again sporting Scott Mayfield streaking into an open wing 11:16 into the third.

How about that shot from Mayfield? That’s a sniper’s goal. It wasn’t quite a top corner snipe but it was 100% bar-down.

Tie game. From that moment on it felt like overtime. Next goal would win. Specifically when Matt Martin was sent to the box after Pat Maroon lifted Martin’s stick into his own face. A huge takeaway from this game was how the Islanders were able to go 2/2 on the penalty kill.

To overtime we went, and for once the Islanders were able to score quickly. Just 1:08 into the extra frame an Anthony Beauvillier forecheck pays off as he steels the puck and slips a snapshot through Andrei Vasilevskiy on the short side.

Bedlam in Nassau. Beer cans rained down on the ice as the faithfully absolutely went mental at the home rink. Game 7 in Tampa here come the Isles. If the Isles play like this again they could very well book their ticket to the Stanley Cup finals for the first time since 1984.