NEW YORK — Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves and Victor Hedman and Alex Killorn scored second-period goals to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 4-1 victory over the New York Islanders on Sunday.
Ross Colton and Mikhail Sergachev added third-period goals for the Lightning, (41-18-6), who have won two straight after a three-game losing streak.
Iyla Sorokin made 18 saves on 20 shots in the first two periods and Semyon Varlamov stopped 12 shots in the third for the Islanders, whose lone goal was scored by Brock Nelson. New York (28-27-9) has dropped two straight.
Nelson gave the Islanders a 1-0 lead late in the first period with his career-high 31st goal. The score came with 1:46 left in the period and was the culmination of a sequence which began when Adam Pelech flipped a lob pass out of New York’s defensive zone to Nelson, who raced down the right side before beating Vasilevskiy high to the glove side.
The Lightning struck back 1:10 into the second on Hedman’s power-play goal to tie the game. Tampa Bay’s cornerstone defenseman accepted a cross-ice pass from Brayden Point, then bolted past Andy Greene before finishing with his 18th of the season.
Killorn gave Tampa Bay the lead for good 8:37 later, finishing an odd-man rush with his 20th of the season.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau appeared to have tied the game with 14.8 seconds left in the period, but a review revealed that Kyle Palmieri was offside and the on-ice ruling was overturned.
The game marked the first time Sorokin and Vasilevskiy had started against each other in their NHL careers, although Sorokin did play against Vasilevskiy twice during last spring’s Eastern Conference final. For two periods, the showdown between star goaltenders lived up to expectations, but in an odd twist, Varlamov replaced Sorokin at the start of the third period.
Tampa Bay spent swaths of the final 20 minutes storming Varlamov’s crease, and the push paid off when Colton flipped his 12th of the season past New York’s backup goaltender with 9:10 left. Sergachev ended the scoring with 3:04 remaining
UP NEXT
Lightning: Host Carolina on Tuesday night.
Islanders: Visit Columbus on Tuesday night.
