Takeaways: Islanders Beat Bolts 2-1

Bo Horvat and Anders Lee said the Islanders were due for a game like Tuesday night.

A low-scoring, protect-the-house, defensive win was just what the doctor ordered for the New York Islanders, who ground out a 2-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning at UBS Arena to snap a three-game winless skid.

“We were kind of due for one of these games where maybe wasn't our best of the last little bit, but we come out with two points and kind of end this little drought that we've been on,” Lee said. “Now we can kind of take a breath of fresh air.”

Horvat and Anthony Duclair scored for the Islanders in the win, while Dominic James netted the lone goal for the Lightning.

Ilya Sorokin stopped 29 of 30 in the win. Andrei Vasilesvkiy stopped 21 of 23 in the loss.

The win improved the Islanders to 2-3-1 on their current homestand and also snapped the Lightning’s seven-game winning streak.

TAKEAWAYS

- After a scoreless first period, Horvat opened the scoring 55 seconds into the second period, collecting his own rebound off Vasilevskiy’s pad and snapping it home for his 16^th of the season. Horvat now has goals in consecutive games following a four-game point drought. He’s gotten red-hot at various points this season and the Isles hope this is the start of another long run.

“You just get that feeling, where you feel like you can score every game,” Horvat said. “[I’d have been] a lot more worried if I wasn't getting my chances and finally, last couple games they’ve been going in.”

- Duclair scored his fourth goal of the season on Tuesday, making three solid individual plays en route to the tally. Duclair made a nice move around Declan Carlile to rush the puck up the ice, swatted a blocked Tony DeAngelo shot to keep a play alive in the Bolts end and eventually snapped home a Cal Ritchie pass.

- Sorokin was solid from start to finish for the Islanders, stopping 29 shots, including 21 high-danger chances (at five-on-five, per Natural Stat Trick). He had a quality breakaway save on Anthony Cirelli in the second period to keep the Isles ahead 1-0, made a good backdoor pad save on Pontus Holmberg late in the third and did his part as the Isles packed the house during a Lightning storm late. It was perhaps Tampa’s least dangerous shot that beat him, as James’ sharp-angled shot with 3:34 to play was the lone shot to beat the Isles netminder, who was a well-deserved second star.

“He was outstanding,” Head Coach Patrick Roy said. “He made obviously a lot of great saves, but I love the commitment that our guys made to block shots.”

The Isles deserved plenty of credit for their 19 blocked shots including four in the final four chaotic minutes of the third. Simon Holmstrom’s late block on a Darren Raddysh shot earned him the team’s iron man mask.

- Max Tsyplakov had a season-high five hits on Tuesday and earned praise from Roy, who also cited a turnover-free game from the Russian winger. The Tsyplakov, Casey Cizikas and Kyle MacLean trio gave the Isles some energy and accounted for a couple of scoring chances, including a two-on-one rush for MacLean and Tsyplakov.

- If there was an area for improvement for the Isles, it was a power play that went 0-for-3 with two shots on goal and found themselves chasing a very effective Tampa penalty kill early in the game. The penalty kill balanced it out with a solid 0-for-3 effort that also limited the Bolts to two shots and served as a precursor to the Isles solid five-on-six finish.

- Adam Pelech finished the game with a team-high five shots and was a force in the final three-and-a-half minutes.

NEXT GAME

The Islanders wrap up their seven-game homestand on Thursday night when they host the Colorado Avalanche. Puck drop is at 7 p.m.