Cal Ritchie banked in a third-period power-play goal, Ilya Sorokin stopped 32 shots in a record-tying performance, and the New York Islanders beat the host Tampa Bay Lightning for the second time in five days in Saturday night’s 2-0 blanking.
In a pivotal moment in the third, Lightning forward Brandon Hagel committed a double-minor high-sticking penalty on Casey Cizikas at 10:14, and the Islanders made Tampa Bay pay in the scoreless match.
During the second half of the four-minute power play, Ritchie grabbed a hard rebound off the end board and banked it in off goaltender Jonas Johansson (17 saves) for his third goal at the 12:46 mark.
Cizikas scored into an empty net in the final seconds for the Islanders’ third straight victory and a 9-4-1 road mark.
Sorokin’s third shutout was the 25th of his career, matching Glenn “Chico” Resch for the most in franchise history.
New York defenseman Adam Boqvist, who had been scratched the past four games, slotted in for Travis Mitchell.
Tampa Bay lost its third straight contest after winning seven in a row and was shut out for the first time this season.
The club was without top point producer Nikita Kucherov, Brayden Point and No. 1 goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy due to undisclosed injuries.
However, Tampa Bay welcomed captain Victor Hedman to the lineup. The defenseman had not played since Nov. 8, a 12-game absence.
After firing a season-high 40 shots in Thursday’s 4-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Lightning had chances in the opening 20 minutes with most of the action being in front of Sorokin, who shut down Tampa Bay 2-1 on Tuesday.
Though they held a 9-4 shot advantage over the Metropolitan Division club, the Lightning could not beat Sorokin in the scoreless first period.
Following a penalty-free first, the teams each had a chance after Hedman went off for tripping Cizikas and then Anders Lee high-sticked the Lightning’s Yanni Gourde. Both came up empty, and a second power play for Tampa Bay also did not produce a goal.
The home side put up 12 shots in another scoreless frame to hold a 21-12 edge over the Islanders, who hit two posts but not the net.
–Field Level Media
