The Islanders (87 points) retain their first wild card status, but the playoff picture became tighter after the evening's results. The Florida Panthers (85 points) entered the playoff picture with a 7-0 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday, knocking the Pittsburgh Penguins (84 points), who lost 4-3 in regulation to the Boston Bruins, out of a playoff position. The Buffalo Sabres (81 points) inched closer to the line with a 6-3 win over the Philidelphia Flyers on Saturday.
The Islanders and Panthers, who occupy both wild card spots in the Eastern Conference, each have five games remaining in the regular season, with the Isles up by two points.
THE SCORING:
17:53 - TBL 1, NYI 0 - Mikhail Sergachev receives a feed from Ross Colton and takes a slap shot from the point, which deflects off the leg of Alex Romanov to beat Ilya Sorokin. Darren Raddysh collects the secondary assist and his first NHL point.
2nd Period:
3:42 - TBL 2, NYI 0 - Tanner Jeannot sneaks to the front of the crease and to tip in a feed from Pierre-Edouard Bellemare. Ian Cole picks up the secondary assist.
9:57 -TBL 3, NYI 0 - Nikita Kucherov takes advantage of a breakaway opportunity, moving in on Sorokin and wrists a shot past him to extend the Lightning lead to 3-0. Brayden Point and Mikhail Sergachev tally assists.
11:45 - TBL 4, NYI 0 - A pass from Raddysh bounces off the skate of Steven Stamkos and into the net. Point records the secondary assist on the play.
3rd Period:
13:26 - TBL 5, NYI 0 PPG - Point rips a shot from the high slot to beat Semyon Varlamov, who allows his first goal in relief.
NOTEBOOK:
Ilya Sorokin was pulled in the middle frame after allowing four goals on 21 shots... Semyon Varlamov made 10-of-11 saves in relief. Sorokin's record dropped to 0-4-0 against the Lightning in the regular season... Brock Nelson passed Mike Bossy for sole possession of eighth place on the Islanders all-time list for games played, skating 18:49 and recording a shot and a hit in his 753rd game... Ryan Pulock and Adam Pelech tied for a team-high five shots... Romanov left the game in the second period after a hit and returned for the third, finishing the night with 19:43 TOI and taking two shots… Cal Clutterbuck and Pat Maroon received 10-minute major penalties at the end of the third period... Clutterbuck led the team with seven hits... The Islanders outshot the Lightning 38-32 in the loss... Andrei Vasilevskiy allowed six goals in his last seven games (including playoffs) at Amalie Arena against the Islanders.
GOALTENDING MATCHUP:
Ilya Sorokin stopped 17-of-21 in the loss, while Semyon Varlamov made 10 saves in relief.
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 38-of-38 in the win.
SPECIAL TEAMS:
The Islanders power play went 0-for-3, while the penalty kill went 1-for-2.
IMAGE OF THE GAME:
