Tampa Bay Lightning vs. New York Islanders NHL Picks, Odds, Predictions 6/19/2021
Tampa Bay Lightning (46-19-5) vs. New York Islanders (41-22-8)
June 19, 2021 8:00 pm EDT
The Line: New York Islanders +120 / Tampa Bay Lightning -133; Over/Under: 5
(Get latest betting odds)
The Tampa Bay Lightning and the New York Islanders meet in game four of their best of seven Stanley Cup semi-final series in NHL action from Nassau Coliseum on Saturday.
The Tampa Bay Lightning will look to take a 3-1 series lead and take a closeout situation back home after going up 2-1 in the series with a 2-1 win over the Islanders in game three last time out.
Yanni Gourde opened the scoring for the Bolts just after the midway point of the opening period and Gourde’s marker would hold up for the rest of the first and most of the second before Cal Clutterbuck tied the game at one apiece with just under three minutes to go in the second period. The tie lasted all of 2:39 before Brayden Point edged the Lightning back in from in the dying seconds of the middle period. The Islanders would try to find an equalizer throughout the course of the third period, but they’d search for one that would not come as Tampa Bay held on for the win and the series lead in the process.
Andrei Vasilevskiy got the win in goal for Tampa Bay after stopping 27 of 28 shots faced in the winning effort while Semyon Varlamov ended up with the defeat between the pipes for the Isles after giving up two goals on 25 shots faced in the losing effort.
Tampa Bay is 4-0 in their last 4 road games and 4-1 in their last 5 games against a team with a winning record while the over is 3-1-1 in their last 5 Saturday games. New York is 4-1 in their last 5 games overall and 6-2 in their last 8 games as a home underdog while the over is 5-1-1 in their last 7 games overall. The road team is 5-1 in the last 6 meetings between these two teams.
This is a hard series to figure out and game four is going to be a tough call as well, with Tampa Bay potentially going back home to close out the series, or the Islanders are going to make this a best-of-three with a win here. Instead, I’m going to side with the under as I see this game epitomizing playoff hockey at its finest where both teams play close to the vest and try not to be the first one to blink. Give me the under.
