Lightning Fall to Islanders 5-3 in Game 1

The Tampa Bay Lightning fell 5-3 to the New York Islanders in Game 1 of the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. On the same day he was named one of the three finalists for the Vezina Trophy, Lightning goalie Ben Bishop let through four goals on 14 shots. Bishop was taken out of the game early in the second and Andrei Vasilevskiy replaced him in net.

Announced pregame, huge stick taps to our very own Ben Bishop! He's one of three Vezina Trophy finalists. pic.twitter.com/761VrDz7ZA

— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) April 27, 2016

Tampa Bay lead 1-0 to start the first after Ondrej Palat scored but the rest of the game was in the Islanders hands. New York took advantage of Bishops poor starting performance as Travis Hamonic netted the tying goal and Shane Prince scored two first period goals to make the score 3-1. This was the first time an Islander has scored multiple goals in the first period of a play off game since 1983.

John Tavaras increased New York’s lead to 4-1 early in the second with a power-play goal before Bishop was pulled. Andrei Vasievskiy came in and stopped the bleeding. New York’s goalie had a different kind of night in the net. Thomas Greiss made 33 saves and only allowed three goals in the Islanders win.

Tampa Bay pulled the game within one in the third period with goals from Nikita Kucherov and Valtteri Filppula. Kucherov scored his sixth goal of the playoffs on a one-timer from Matthew Carle. But this comeback wasn’t enough for the Lightning. Islanders Cal Clutterbuck  scored the final goal of the game with 55 seconds left to secure New York’s 5-3 win in game one.

#BoltsNation Goal of the Game: Another day in the life of Nikita Kucherov. #TBLvsNYIhttps://t.co/EQKsnerwi6

— Tampa Bay Lightning (@TBLightning) April 28, 2016

Lightning defender Victor Hedman says they have to play smarter and work on getting the puck deep in practice.

Next up, Tampa Bay will host Game 2 of the series Saturday at 3 p.m.