Tampa Bay Lightning snap five game losing streak against New York Islander 4-1 –NHL Match Update
Tampa Bay finally won their second game of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season against New York as the Lightning snapped their five game losing streak against the Islanders, 4-1, on Thursday night, October 20, at the St. Pete Times
Forum in Tampa, Florida.
Coming out a season which eventually ended with Tampa Bay reaching the Eastern Conference Finals and nearly reaching the Stanley Cup Finals for the second time since winning the championship back in 2004, the Lightning certainly did not show any of that
entering this season.
"Definitely, that's the way we want to play", Tampa Bay’s veteran centre, Vincent Lecavalier, said, after the matchup about their performance. "Last year we were successful because we played like that".
New York on the other hand faced only its second loss in the past five matchups and has been performing like a top-notch team despite one of the most disappointing result last season as they ended at one of the bottom ranks of the Eastern Conference.
"No excuses, we know we have to be better, but we’re not going to let this fester too much", Islanders veteran defenseman, Steve Staios, said, about how they would not continue losing in the season. "We know that we have to play. We have to be ready for
the next game. We’re not going to let this get us down. We’re just going to use it as motivation".
Ryan Malone scored the first goal of the matchup with less than four minutes to play in the opening period on their second power play opportunity as Steve Staios was booked for hooking.
Vincent Lecavalier extended the lead nearly at the same time during round-two of the showdown between the two Eastern Division teams.
Steven Stamkos took the match out of hand with his third goal of the season at the 5:25 mark in the third period. Michael Grabner put the Islanders on the scoreboard nearly two minutes later, giving New York more than enough time to either make a comeback
or tie it, but Brett Clark made the insuring goal with 3:01 remaining to secure the contest in Tampa Bay’s favour.
Lightning play their last home game before head off for two straight on the road with Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday. New York Islanders will face the Florida Panthers on Saturday.
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