Lightning take series lead with overtime win
NEW YORK— Brian Boyle scored at 2:48 of overtime to lift the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 5-4 victory over the New York Islanders on Tuesday night for a 2-1 lead in their secondround series.
Nikita Kucherov tied it in the final minute of regulation, and Ryan Callahan, Victor Hedman and Vladislav Namestnikov also scored for the Lightning. Ben Bishop stopped 35 shots.
On the winning goal, the Lightning were on an odd-man rush and Hedman fired a shot from the left side that was wide, but the rebound came off the boards and right to Boyle in front at the right side of the goal and he tapped it in for the win.
Josh Bailey, back after missing the first two games of this series with an upper-body injury, had two goals, and Nick Leddy and Cal Clutterbuck also scored for the Islanders. Thomas Greiss finished with 36 saves.
Game 4 of the best-of-seven series is Friday night. With Bishop pulled for an extra skater, Kucherov’s NHLleading seventh goal of the playoffs evened it with 38.4 seconds remaining. Jonathan Drouin, who returned earlier in the period after taking a hard hit from Thomas Hickey in the second, was skating toward the goal line and sent a centring pass back to Kucherov, who fired it past Greiss for the fourth tie in the seesaw game.
Clutterbuck had given the Islanders a 4-3 lead with 8:37 remaining as he got the puck on a deflection of an outlet pass by the Lightning off the skate of the Islanders’ Casey Cizikas, and beat Bishop on the blocker side high and in off the crossbar.
Bailey put the Islanders ahead 3-2 with his second goal early in the third period. About 10 seconds after a penalty on Cizikas expired with the teams skating 4-on-4, Hickey sent a pass from the corner in front to Bailey, who fired it past Bishop at 2:27.
The Lightning tied it nearly a minute later after the Islanders turned it over behind their net. Valtteri Filppula found Namestnikov in front and he snapped it past Greiss at 3:25.
Hedman gave the Lightning a 2-1 lead at 8:10 of the second period. Tyler Johnson won a faceoff against Frans Nielsen, the puck came to Hedman and he sent a rolling shot past Greiss for his second of the series. Leddy tied it with 6:10 left in the second.
Predators 4, Sharks 1
Shea Weber scored the go-ahead goal and had an assist and the Nashville Predators beat the San Jose Sharks 4-1 Tuesday night to pull within 2-1 in their Western Conference second-round series.
James Neal and Filip Forsberg each scored on the power-play, Colin Wilson had a goal, and Pekka Rinne made 26 saves for Nashville.
Patrick Marleau scored for the Sharks, who lost for the first time away from San Jose this post-season and first since a loss at Arizona on March 17.
Game 4 is Thursday night.