It would be easy for Tampa Bay to lament over two tight losses, one in controversial fashion, but the Lightning need to put it behind them when the New York Islanders visit Saturday night in the teams’ second matchup this week.
The Islanders started Tampa Bay’s two-game run of bad outcomes Tuesday with a 2-1 win, holding on behind Ilya Sorokin’s stellar goaltending.
However, the Lightning’s Thursday contest with the Pittsburgh Penguins got messy at the end.
With its goalie pulled and down 4-3, Tampa Bay turned to winger Nikita Kucherov, who whizzed in a shot for what appeared to be his 13th goal to level the score with 55 seconds left.
But a league-initiated review from the situation room in Toronto overturned the tying tally, ruling that the Lightning’s Brandon Hagel had touched a high pass rimming around the glass 11 seconds earlier — creating a hand pass that nullified the goal.
“Is that the spirit of the rule, for him to take it in the face?” Lightning coach Jon Cooper asked of what he felt was Hagel trying to protect himself and not directing it to a teammate. “I think that’s where they got that wrong. … He didn’t direct any puck. That was a bang-bang play with tons of guys around him and a lot of the game developed after that and the puck went in the net.
“I think you read the rulebook, which we did, and try and dissect what happened on the play, and I think … it’s laughable that that was overturned.”
Holding the top spot in the Atlantic Division, the Lightning are just 5-5-1 against the Metropolitan Division.
Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy (11-6-2, 2.31 goals-against average, .917 save percentage) is expected to start against the Islanders after being scratched Thursday with a minor injury.
New York trounced the Central Division-leading Avalanche 6-3 on Thursday. Now the Islanders will ride plenty of momentum into this rematch after earning points in three of their past four tilts (2-1-1) and handing Colorado just its second regulation loss.
Patrick Roy won his 200th game as a coach with the outcome, but he was unaware of it until Anders Lee presented him with the puck.
The Hall of Famer said he believes in his team and was not surprised by the convincing win against his former club.
“The focus was to play against the best team in the NHL that had only one loss,” said Roy, who holds the NHL record for playoff wins by a goalie with 151. “Like I said to them before the game, I believe if there’s a team that could surprise them, it’s us. … We’re playing really good hockey lately. On the homestand, we finished .500 — 3-3-1.
“I felt like we easily could have been above .500.”
Lee’s 295th career goal tied him for fifth-most in the club’s history with ex-teammate Brock Nelson.
“We closed out the homestand with four points going into a tough couple down south. We’ll take that confidence and this momentum down there and continue to roll,” Lee said of the two-game trip against the Lightning and Florida Panthers.
Bo Horvat leads New York with 29 points (17 goals, 12 assists), while Mathew Barzal has hit the net eight times with 13 helpers. Kucherov paces the Lightning with 34 points (12 goals, 22 assists).
