Mathew Barzal and Emil Heineman scored in the shootout Saturday for the New York Islanders, who completed a perfect three-game homestand by edging the Tampa Bay Lightning, 3-2, in Elmont, N.Y.
Matthew Schaefer and Calum Ritchie scored in the first for the Islanders, who won despite being outshot 34-17. The shots were the fewest for New York in a victory since it had 14 shots in a 2-1 win over the Vegas Golden Knights n Feb. 4.
Goalie Ilya Sorokin made 32 saves as the Islanders won for the sixth time in seven games.
Darren Raddysh scored in the second and J.J. Moser collected the tying goal in the third for the Lightning, whose two-game winning streak was snapped. Goalie Jonas Johansson, drawing the start with Andrei Vasilevskiy on injured reserve, made 15 saves.
The Islanders drew two penalties in the first 2:11 before Schaefer scored a power play goal on their first shot at the 3:05 mark.
Schaefer and Mathew Barzal exchanged the puck three times between the left faceoff circle and the slot before Schaefer moved back into the faceoff circle and dished to Duclair, who was near the bottom of the circle. Duclair immediately passed back to Schaefer, who fired a shot beyond Johansson’s glove.
The Islanders doubled the lead on their next shot. Duclair picked off a pass by Nick Paul in the New York zone and raced up the left side of the ice before passing from deep in the left faceoff circle to Ritchie, who sent a shot off the top post with 9:54 left.
The Lightning scored twice to tie the game while limiting the Islanders to just two shots in the next 32-plus minutes.
Raddysh collected a 5-on-3 goal at 10:13 of the second, when his slapshot from the slot sailed stick side past Sorokin as he was screened by teammate Ryan Pulock.
Moser tied the score at 3:20 of the third. Brayden Point won a faceoff with Ritchie deep in the Islanders zone and the puck went to Nikita Kucherov, who dished to Moser before the defenseman’s shot from the left faceoff circle went over Sorokin’s glove.
–Field Level Media
