Islanders recover, top Lightning in Game 3 for first win of Eastern Final

Brock Nelson scored the tiebreaking goal with 3:25 remaining in the third period, and the New York Islanders recovered for a 5-3 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Final at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Friday.

After Tampa Bay scored twice in the third to tie it 3-3, Anthony Beauvillier sent a spinning pass to the right face-off circle, where Nelson gave New York a 4-3 lead on a wrist shot.
"It's nice to get a bounce-back win," Nelson said. "A lot of guys were big for us. On that play, Beauvillier] made a nice play. Got stopped on the first one, but stuck with it and found me. It's nice to get that win."
***[WATCH: [All Lightning vs. Islanders highlights]*
Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored an empty-net goal for the 5-3 final with 36 seconds left.
Nelson, Beauvillier and Pageau each had a goal and an assist, and Semyon Varlamov made 34 saves for the Islanders, the No. 6 seed in the East, who avoided a third straight loss to begin the best-of-7 series.
New York lost Game 2 2-1 on a goal by Nikita Kucherov with nine seconds left in the third.
"This group is special with the resiliency," Islanders coach Barry Trotz said. "This is our fourth series, not our third. We've had to battle through double overtime losses, a lot of different things. … That's all we talk about. Focus on the moment. What can you do now? It doesn't matter what you did in the past. That's old news."

Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson and Mikhail Sergachev scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves for the Lightning, the No. 2 seed, who had won six straight games since losing 3-2 to the Boston Bruins in Game 1 of the second round on Aug. 23.
"It's a tough one," Tampa Bay defenseman Victor Hedman said. "We've got to put this behind us, learn from it and move forward. That's all we can do. We can't change what happened a few minutes ago."
Game 4 is in Edmonton, the hub city for the conference finals and the Stanley Cup Final, on Sunday (3 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, SN, TVAS).
Palat redirected a centering pass from Kucherov on a power play to get the Lightning within 3-2 at 2:32 of the third, and Johnson tied it 3-3 by redirecting a shot from Erik Cernak at 12:04. Johnson's goal was upheld after a video review determined his stick was not above the crossbar.
Cal Clutterbuck gave New York a 1-0 lead at 12:58 of the first period on a wrist shot from the left face-off circle past Vasilevskiy, whose right pad had come loose earlier in the play.
Sergachev scored on a backhand in the slot to tie it 1-1 at 16:31.
"Obviously, whenever you play a playoff game, you don't like your opponent," Sergachev said. "You've got to be hard on him. You've got to take the puck away from them and score goals. We're doing that by hitting them, playing physical, playing fast. I don't know if it's a rivalry, but they don't like us, we don't like them."

Adam Pelech gave New York a 2-1 lead at 11:50 of the second period on a wrist shot under Vasilevskiy's glove. It was his first Stanley Cup Playoff goal.
Beauvillier pushed the lead to 3-1 at 13:50 on a one-timer from the slot off a backhand pass from Nelson.
"It's always fun to win," Beauvillier said. "When you're able to contribute in it, it's always fun."
The Lightning played without forwards Brayden Point and Alex Killorn. Point missed the final 34:37 of Game 2 for undisclosed reasons; Killorn served a one-game suspension for boarding Nelson in Game 2.

Point is tied with Kucherov for the Lightning lead with 23 points (eight goals, 15 assists) in 15 games this postseason, including five points (two goals, three assists) in Game 1 of this series.
"We handed that one to them," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "It was gift wrapped. … We hand-delivered a couple [chances] to them and good teams will make you pay. That's what happened tonight."
NOTES:Islanders forward Casey Cizikas was unfit to play. Trotz did not provide an update following the game. As part of the NHL Return to Play Plan, a team is not permitted to disclose player injury or illness information.
NHL.com staff writer Mike Zeisberger contributed to this report