Isles close in on series win, beat Panthers in double OT
ByReuters
Published 23/04/2016 at 04:46 GMT
April 22 (The Sports Xchange) - Alan Quine scored the game-winning goal 16 minutes into the second overtime as the New York Islanders defeated the Florida Panthers 2-1 on Friday at the BB&T Center to take a 3-2 lead in their best-of-seven first-round playoff series.
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Aside from empty-netters, each of the first five games in this series has been decided by one goal.
Center Frans Nielsen also scored for New York and Thomas Greiss made 47 saves.
Greiss' biggest stop came with 12:41 left in the first overtime after Islanders defenseman Calvin De Haan grabbed the puck in the crease, which is an infraction. Panthers center Aleksander Barkov was awarded a penalty shot, but his backhand move was stopped by Greiss.
The game was marred by what appeared to be a gruesome injury. With 18:11 left in double overtime, the Panthers lost second-line center Nick Bjugstad, who fell face first into the boards. Bjugstad remained down on the ice for about five minutes before he was able to recover and head to the trainers' room.
This was the Islanders' first win in a Game 5 since 1987, snapping a 0-for-11 skid. Game 6 is set for Sunday in New York, where the Islanders can clinch their first series win since 1993.
Florida hasn't won a playoff series since 1996.
The Islanders, though, apparently learned some lessons with the core of this team. As of Friday morning, they were in this scenario -- tied 2-2 heading into Game 5 -- twice in the past couple years. In 2013, they lost at Pittsburgh and in 2014 lost 5-1 at Washington.
This time, the Islanders came out on top, thanks in part to Nielsen, who scored his third goal of the playoffs, and Greiss, who had never started a playoff game before this series but has three wins.
Florida was led by Barkov, who scored the Panthers' goal, and goalie Roberto Luongo, who stopped 40 shots.
The Islanders again shut down Panthers right winger Jaromir Jagr, who hasn't scored in a playoff game since 2012, a span of 36 games.
New York scored first. With 6:29 left in the first period, Nielsen scored from the slot on a rebound of Thomas Hickey's shot.
Florida tied the score with 18:01 left in the third period. Defenseman Alex Petrovic, who scored the game-winning goal in the third period of Game 4, set up Barkov for the tying goal.
Petrovic threaded a pass from the right side, through traffic and in between Jagr's legs, right to Barkov, who tapped the puck into the left side of a yawning net.
The Islanders challenged the goal, claiming the play was offside, but the play stood as called.
With the series headed back to Brooklyn, the Islanders have the edge. In the history of the Stanley Cup playoffs in series tied 2-2, the team that came out on top in Game 5 advanced 78.4 percent of the time.
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