Islanders fail first real test against Lightning despite bright spots
The Islanders liked the direction in which they were trending over the season’s first four games.Until Saturday, though, they had not been tested against a true contender.Now they have, and while the Islanders can be happy with pieces of their game, the overall results won’t be to their liking.The Lightning were faster and smarter.
Mostly, Tampa Bay played a more complete 60 minutes than the Islanders in beating them 5-3 on Saturday night at UBS Arena on the back of Brandon Hagel’s hat trick.Want to know why it’s so important to take care of business on nights like Thursday against Chicago or this coming Tuesday against Vancouver? Saturday is why.It is a testament to their resilience as well as their penalty-killing on a night when the Islanders spent more than seven minutes in the box that they entered the late stages of the game still very much in it.As has been the case a few times early this season, the Islanders grew into the game as it went on, finally starting to apply pressure and take away Andrei Vasilevskiy’s eyes in the second period.That resulted in Tony DeAngelo’s goal that made it 2-1, while Matthew Schaefer’s that made it 3-2 at 11:41 of the period may have been more about the 19-year-old’s supreme skill.Schaefer’s first of his second season was one for the highlight reels as he walked the line, deked Anthony Cirelli clean and beat Vasilevskiy before an emphatic celebration.At that point, Schaefer started to take over the game.
His skill on the puck helped set up the game-tying goal with seven seconds left in the second period, as a juggling keep-in led to Brayden Schenn getting to Kyle Palmieri’s pass across, with Erik Cernak’s stick giving a last touch on the way into the net.That gave way to a rollicking third, by far the most entertaining hockey the Islanders have played this season: end-to-end, physical, breathless.With under two minutes to go, it was still deadlocked at 3-3, but the Lightning again had started to tilt the...