Gourde propels Lightning past Islanders

TAMPA -- Yanni Gourde scored two goals in 1:34 late in the second period to help the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 6-2 win against the New York Islanders at Amalie Arena on Tuesday.
Brayden Point, Andrej Sustr, Vladislav Namestnikov and Chris Kunitz scored for the Lightning (19-6-2), who have won the first two games on a four-game homestand. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves for his NHL-leading 18th win.

Gourde's goals gave the Lightning a 4-2 lead. He scored a power-play goal at 16:22 of the second period on a rebound of a shot by Mikhail Sergachev. He scored again at 17:56 on a put-back of a shot by Slater Koekkoek.
WATCH: [All Islanders vs. Lightning highlights]
"[Standing in front of the net] is where you score most of my goals, and I'm going to continue doing that," Gourde said. "On the power play, I saw the puck was going to net and I just went that way and it hit the boards. You want to be around the net."
Mathew Barzal and Jordan Eberle scored for the Islanders (16-9-2), who failed to win their fourth consecutive road game. Thomas Greiss made 28 saves.

"I felt like we managed the puck extremely poorly and turned it over a lot," Islanders captain John Tavares said. "We made it too easy for them, not having to go back to their end and retrieve pucks. We obviously had a really good second period until the last few minutes when we basically gave up three goals.
Namestikov gave the Lightning a 5-2 lead at 18:46 of the second period when he followed up a shot by Nikita Kucherov for his 11th goal of the season.
Kunitz made it 6-2 with a breakaway goal at 14:00 of the third period.
Point scored on the first shift 34 seconds into the game. Sustr gave the Lightning a 2-0 lead at 17:47 of the first period.
"I thought we had a great start," Lightning forward Ryan Callahan said. "Our first period was really good and it was a big point of emphasis because they last time they were here, they took control from the beginning."

Sustr, who has been a healthy scratch 13 times this season, has two goals in the past three games.
"Sustr has been a regular for us the last few years and he's had to take a back seat here the first 15-20 games, but all he's done is work his tail off, not complain and be a team player," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "You always feel if karma comes back at you and you get rewarded … his work is paying off."
Barzal scored his seventh goal of the season at 7:07 of the second period before Eberle tied it 2-2 on a one-timer set up by Barzal at 8:58.
"We weren't ready to play. We got out-executed," Eberle said. "They were rolling around on us and we had trouble getting out of our own end. We woke up in the second and started to play and had a real good 15-16 minutes to climb back in it, and then they scored three quick ones."

Goal of the Game

Gourde's goal at 16:22 of the second period.

Save of the Game

Vasilevskiy's pad save against Eberle at 4:58 of the second period.

Highlight of the Game

Namestnikov's goal at 18:46 of the second period.

They said it

"We took a bad penalty. I don't know the reason we took the penalty, and we can't kill penalties. I don't know any other way to say (it). We have to figure it out. Whether it's bounces or one guy does the job wrong ... it doesn't matter. I think we've given up seven in the last 12 opportunities or something crazy, and it's beginning to cost us." -- Islanders coach Doug Weight
"I'm more comfortable when we play the right way. We played that way in the first, maybe six minutes in the second and we played a pretty steady third. That's when I'm comfortable. When we're not playing the right way, it can be troublesome and we let them back in the game. Thankfully, Yanni Gourde came to the rescue at the end of the second." -- Lightning coach Jon Cooper

Need to know

The Lightning needed 27 games to get 40 points, surpassing their previous record time of 30 games in 2014-15. ... The Islanders were outshot 11-2 in the first period. Defenseman Scott Mayfield had both shots.

What's next

Islanders: At the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; SN, TVA Sports, ATTSN-PT, MSG+, NHL.TV)
Lightning: Host the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; SUN, ALT, NHL.TV)