Tampa Bay Lightning plays host to New York Islanders in their fourth and final meeting
The Tampa Bay Lightning will be hosting the New York Islanders at the St. Pete Times Arena in another game of Tuesday. This will be the fourth and final meeting between the two teams during the course of the season. Out of the three games that have taken
place between the two teams during the course of the season, Islanders lead the series 2-1.
This will be the first meeting between the two teams after the New Year. Islanders won the last game between the two teams 2-1 after overtime. Islanders are one of bottom tier teams in the league. They were coming across some dreadful results but their fortunes
changed after the All-Star break. Jack Capuano, interim coach of Islanders has come up with 13 regulation time wins.
"You know what, I don't really judge myself too much," Capuano said. "I feel like some of the things I've implemented have [gotten] results from some of the guys. A lot of guys are having career years, and it's impressive and it's a credit to them."
Islanders were trailing in the game against the Florida Panthers 2-1 but they managed to come up with a strong performance which saw them levelling the game on 3-3 at the end of regulation time.
The game went into overtime but no goals were scored. However, Islanders managed to emerge as winners of the game after shootout.
"I'll take a win any way I can get it," said DiPietro, who finished with 29 saves before winning for the 19th time in 29 career shootouts. "I would rather have not let in that third goal, but a little extra work never hurt anybody."
Islanders have played 73 games during the course of the season out which they have won 28 games in regulation time, 12 games overtime to score a total of 68 points.
Unfortunately, Islanders are out of the play-off picture but they can play a very important role as a spoiler during the remaining part of the season.
Lightning have played 72 games during the course of the season out of which they have won 39 games in regulation time and 11 games in overtime to score a total of 89 points and are pretty assured of a spot in the play-offs.
Lightning was one of the few teams that had a successful middle part of the season which has enabled them to stay in the play-off’s cut.
This is despite the drop in form which has seen them winning just two out of their last 10 games.
This past Saturday, Lightning suffered their successive loss as they lost to the Ottawa Senators 3-2 in overtime.
"It's frustrating because we only gave them 12 shots in the first two periods. We had double the shots and we had total control of the game," Boucher said.
Tags: