Vasilevskiy, Lightning storm past Islanders
NEW YORK — Andrei Vasilevskiy made 23 saves and Victor Hedman and Alex Killorn scored secondperiod 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 thirdperiod 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.
RANGERS 5, SABRES 4 (OT)
NEW YORK — K’Andre Miller scored 2:02 into overtime and the Rangers beat the Sabres.
Frank Vatrano had two goals, Alexis Lafreniere had a goal and an assist and Artemi Panarin also scored to help the Rangers win for the fifth time in their last six at home. New York is 9-2-1 in its last 12 at Madison Square Garden. Andrew Copp had two assists and Alexandar Georgiev had 13 saves to improve to 10-9-2 on the season.
Rasmus Asplund, Will Butcher, Kyle Okposo and Jeff Skinner scored for Buffalo, which is 3-0-2 in its last five. Craig Anderson finished with 26 saves.
In the extra period, Copp stole the puck at center ice, brought it up and passed to Lafreniere on the right side. Lafreniere passed it back across to a Miller, who beat Anderson inside the left post for his sixth of the season. Copp, acquired from Winnipeg last Monday, has five points in three games with the Rangers.
New York has won its last five against Buffalo and is 9-0-1 in the last 10 meetings. In 20 matchups dating back to Feb. 2, 2017, the Rangers are 16-3-1 against the Sabres. The Rangers also completed a threegame sweep of the season series against the Sabres and denied Buffalo its first three-game road winning streak since November 2018.
The Sabres reached overtime for the fifth straight game, accomplishing the feat for the first time since November 2010.
Panarin put the Rangers ahead 4-3 early in the third, getting the rebound of a shot by Jacob Trouba that was stopped by Anderson and scoring his 17th at 3:52. Panarin leads the Rangers with 75 points and has the most points this season at home with 36 — six goals and 30 assists.
Skinner tied it on the power-play with 6:53 remaining with his 27th of the season.
After Vatrano scored twice within 18 seconds early in the first to give New York a 2-0 lead, the Sabres forged ahead 3-2 on goals by Asplund, Butcher and Okposo.
Lafreniere then tied it for the Rangers at 11:46 of the second with his 15th goal, extending his points streak to six games.
As they did Friday when they swamped Pittsburgh for three goals in the first four minutes en route to a 5-1 win, the Rangers started quickly against the Sabres with Vatrano’s goals.
The 28-year-old forward, acquired from Florida on March 16, opened the scoring at 3:59, taking a pass from Chris Kreider before firing the puck past Anderson.