Islanders end Lightning's five-game win streak

TAMPA -- Anders Lee scored two goals to help the New York Islanders to a 5-3 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Amalie Arena on Saturday.
John Tavares had a goal and two assists, and Brock Nelson and Andrew Ladd scored for New York (11-6-2), which has won three straight. Josh Bailey had three assists and Thomas Greiss made 36 saves.

WATCH: [All Islanders vs. Lightning highlights]
Yanni Gourde had two goals and Ondrej Palat also scored for the Lightning (15-3-2), who had won five in a row. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves but lost his first game in regulation since Oct. 7.
"It's great, it was a great test for our team," Islanders coach Doug Weight said. "It was huge to get on the board quick, get that confidence in a place like this. We just executed how we wanted to play."

Ladd opened the scoring 51 seconds into the game when he beat Vasilevskiy with a shot to the far side.
"First two periods, I thought we did a good job and we were able to get the pucks deep," Ladd said. "They are a talented offensive team, so we wanted to play as much as we could on our end of the ice."
Lee scored his 10th goal of the season at 10:25 of the first period to give the Islanders a 2-0 lead. Tavares set it up with a behind-the-back feed.
Nelson made it 3-0 lead at 7:09 of the second period with a shot that beat Vasilevskiy on the glove side.
"This is a good win against a tough team to beat in any building, especially at home," Bailey said. "We'll definitely this take one. Obviously they pushed late, but we got it done."
Lee's second goal was scored on the power play at 1:05 of the third period. Bailey set Lee up in front of the net, where he scored on the rebound of his own shot to make it 4-0.
"[The Lightning] are in the position that they are in, so we knew we had to come in here and work and play a good 60 minutes," Lee said. "Although we had a couple of letdowns, I thought we really put together a good game."

The Lightning tried to rally with two goals in 13 seconds. Gourde made it 4-1 when he beat Greiss with a tip-in off a shot from Brayden Point at 3:13 of the third period.
"There were a lot of bouncing pucks ... but if you work hard, you are going to get the right bounce at the right time," Gourde said. "The third period is proof of that; we were working hard, working the right way and we got the puck bouncing our way."
Palat then scored his fifth goal of the season to at 3:26 with a high shot from outside the right circle.
"Our game got better as the game went on, but it was too late," Palat said. "It was a lot of bounces and pucks that didn't go our way, but you can sit here and the last 15 games, I think the puck went our way."
Gourde scored his second goal at 16:24 of the third period to pull the Lightning within 4-3.
But Tavares sealed the win for the Islanders with an empty-net goal with 21.9 seconds remaining.
"We were off, it just felt off," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "But we didn't start well and you have to give the Islanders a little credit. They came in here to win a hockey game."

Goal of the game

Ladd's one-timer at 19:09 of the first period.

Save of the game

Greiss' save against Brayden Point at 15:47 of the first period.

Highlight of the game

Lee's second goal at 1:05 of the third period.

They said it

"I think we had something to prove to ourselves a little bit. We know what we're capable of now and we know what type of game we need to play to beat these kind of teams." -- Islanders forward Anders Lee
"We are pleased with the effort in the third period, but that's not really our goal. We need to play 60 minutes. Tonight, we didn't. There is no excuse for that. We just need to be prepared to play every night." -- Lightning forward Yanni Gourde

Need to know

The Islanders have scored five or more goals in three consecutive games for the first time since Jan. 30-Feb. 4, 1996, according to Elias Sports Bureau. … Islanders forward Cal Clutterbuck was scratched because of illness. ... Tampa Bay's top line of Steven Stamkos, Nikita Kucherov and Vladislav Namestnikov was held without a point for the second time this season.

What's next

Islanders: At the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday (5 p.m. ET; FS-CR, MSG+, NHL.TV)
Lightning: Host the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NBCSCH, NHL.TV)