Isles vs. Lightning

Isles lose 4-2 to Lightning

See game recap in above blog post

Isles trail 2-1 after second period

Isles let a 3-min power play go to waste after Mattias Ritola's charging major (likely to earn the 23-year-old center receive supplementary discipline from the league) and Tampa adds their second PPG of the game with Brett Clark's redirect for a 2-0 lead.

Matt Moulson cut the lead in half at 17:26, burying a deft assist from Zenon Konopka for his seventh goal of the season.

Isles have given up over 30 shots through two periods

Isles down 1-0 after first period

Pretty good first period for Islanders under the Jack Capuano regime for the first time-- high-energy, up-tempo, and scoring chances aplenty, but the Islanders find themselves down a goal after the Bolts scored at the buzzer.

With 0.3 seconds on the clock, Steven Stamkos tallied on the power-play for a 1-0 lead. The goal was reviewed to ensure the puck crossed the line before time expired and was ruled good.

That's Stamkos' 16th goal of the season; he leads the league with 29 points.

***

Ironically enough, Tampa Bay was the last team the Islanders beat--on Matt Moulson's lengthily-reviewed OT game winner October 21.

In the ten games since the Islanders earned only 1 point out of 20 possible, prompting the team to fire head coach Scott Gordon and replace him with Bridgeport bench boss Jack Capuano.

Capuano will make his NHL head coaching debut tonight against the Lightning, who ahve dropped three straight.

Dwayne Roloson vs. Dan Ellis in net.

***Shout out to James and Jimmy in section 322 tonight. Had a nice pre-game meal chat with the two of them...hope they get to enjoy the game :)