The Tampa Bay Lightning host the New York Islanders in game two of their best-of-seven Stanley Cup semi-finals in NHL action from the Amalie Arena on Tuesday night.
The New York Islanders will look to stun the defending champions and take a 2-0 series lead back to Long Island after stealing game one with a 2-1 win last time out.
The first period finished scoreless and the tie at 0-0 held until the second half of the middle period where Mathew Barzal pushed the Islanders in front with just over seven and a half minutes to play in the second. Ryan Pulock doubled the Islanders lead just under six minutes into the 3rd period and the 2-0 lead stuck until Tampa Bay made things interesting in the final minute with Brayden Point’s power play goal, but in the end it was too little too late as the Islanders held on for a crucial series-opening win.
Semyon Varlamov got the win in goal for the Islanders, stopping 30 of 31 shots faced in the winning effort while Andrei Vasilevskiy took the loss between the pipes for the Lightning, giving up both goals on 31 shots against in the defeat.
New York is 5-2 in their last 7 games following a win and 4-0 in their last 4 games as an underdog while the over is 5-2-1 in their last 8 games overall. Tampa Bay is 45-19 in their last 64 home games and and 80-37 in their last 117 games as a favorite while the under is 7-1 in their last 8 games against a team with a winning record. The under is 3-0-1 in the last 4 meeetings between these two teams.
I get the case that could be made for both sides here as this is a lot of plus money with an Islanders team that’s already won a game in the series and the Bolts could and should bounce back at home. However, I’m going to side with the under here as I think game two takes the same shape as game one and that it ends up being a defensive battle. I could easily see another 2-1 game whichever way you slice it, so give me the under here.