The Lightning know that from their experience so far in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs. They held a 3-1 series lead in the first round against the Columbus Blue Jackets and needed to go to overtime to close out the series with a 5-4 victory in Game 5. The Lightning also took a 3-1 series lead on the Boston Bruins in the second round and went to the second overtime in Game 5 before advancing with a 3-2 victory.
Tampa Bay is expecting to have to work at least as hard in Game 5 -- or beyond -- to finish off New York.
"Just because you're one game away doesn't mean you're in," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "You're still one game away, and we're going to have to match an effort that we've watched Columbus give and Boston give, and I'm sure the Islanders are going to give. But we've gone through this. We know what we have to do, and we just got to be ready to do it."
Getting back to the Cup Final has been a driving force for the Lightning since they lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games in 2015. Nine players remain from that series: Vasilevskiy, defensemen Victor Hedman and Braydon Coburn, and forwards Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov, Alex Killorn, Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson and Cedric Paquette.
Stamkos, the Tampa Bay captain since 2014, has yet to play in the postseason because he is unfit to play, but he has not been ruled out past the conference final and likely will do everything possible to try to return to the lineup if the Lightning do get back to the Cup Final.
They've been one win from getting there twice since 2015.
They had a 3-2 series lead on the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 2016 conference final and lost the last two games, including 2-1 in Game 7 when Stamkos returned after missing eight weeks while recovering from surgery to clear a blood clot near his right collarbone.
The Lightning had a 3-2 series lead on the Washington Capitals in the 2018 conference final and again lost the last two games, including 4-0 at home in Game 7.
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It's been a long road for the Lightning to get to this point again, so they know they need to hold their emotions in check for the next two days and not look beyond Game 5.
"We have to," Cooper said. "But it's kind of the things we've done the whole playoffs. We've had some lopsided wins by the score -- I'm not saying the game was -- and we've had to bounce back from those. And we've had some losses and we had to bounce back from those."
The Lightning demonstrated their ability to bounce back again in Game 4, improving to 3-0 in the playoffs in games following a loss. After losing 5-3 in Game 4 on Friday, they fell behind 1-0 with 8:33 left in the second period.
Tampa Bay responded with a breakaway goal from Blake Coleman 15 seconds later and took a 2-1 lead when Palat finished a 3-on-2 rush 12 seconds after that. Brayden Point scored on another rush 3:33 into the third before Patrick Maroon's empty-net goal with 2:24 left sealed the victory.
"I think that's been the beauty of our team this year," Coleman said. "You give up that goal, and I don't think there's many guys saying, 'Oh [darn].' We're confident we can come back in games."
The Lightning thought it was their time to return to the Cup Final and win it last season after they earned the Presidents' Trophy as the team with the best record in the NHL in the regular season. Then the Blue Jackets swept them in the first round.
So they know not to take anything for granted now.
"Getting the fourth win is always the toughest," center Yanni Gourde said. "We know that, so we're going to have to have our best effort out there. We're going to need a big start, and we're going to have to keep going for 60 minutes. Those ones are the toughest to get, so we're going to have to be ready for that."
