Lightning complete season series sweep of Islanders

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
November 14, 2016

The revolution is coming to the Tampa Bay Lightning and it will be led by the Russians.

Not to mention a couple of honorary members of that group, as well.

Goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped all 34 shots he faced for his third career shutout.

Fellow Russians Nikita Kucherov and Vladislav Namestnikov added to the offense while honorary Russians J.T. Brown scored his second of the season and Steven Stamkos added a pair of assists.’’

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Brown, who played on a line with Kucherov and Namestnikov in the American Hockey League, still carries the name “JT Brownov’’ on his Twitter handle. Stamkos, who has centered Kucherov and Namestnikov for most of the prior two weeks, leads the trio dubbed The Flying Stamkonovs line.

The first part of Monday’s game belonged to the offensive stars.

Brown kicked things off, racing up ice to gain inside position coming down the slot to take a pass from Cedric Paquette – who raced down the ice to gather in a puck flipped out of the defensive zone by Braydon Coburn – and finish off the partial breakaway with 42 seconds.

Ryan Callahan tipped a shot from Andrej Sustr 22 seconds later to hand Tampa Bay a 2-0 lead heading in to the second period.

That’s when the Stamkos line put on a show with some dazzling passing combinations.

The first came at 14:24 of the second period when Kucherov intercepted an Adam Pelech pass inside the Tampa Bay zone. As Kucherov gained the blue line he cut across to the middle and dropped a pass for Stamkos, who made his way toward the right circle. With a lane opened up as Brian Boyle drove the net, Stamkos slipped a pass across the slot to Kucherov for an easy tap-in to increase the lead to 3-0.

As Kucherov made his way to congratulate Stamkos, he could be seen telling Stamkos “Oh my God’’ for the pass.

The passing wizardry continued for that line as Kucherov collected a long outlet pass from Slater Koekkoek and entered the Islander zone. As Stamkos trailed the play, Kucherov pulled up along the boards and fed him a pass to allow Stamkos to again find his way to the right circle before slipping a pass across the crease to Namestnikov for another tap-in goal at 17:02.

With the big lead in hand, the third period turned in to the Andrei Vasilevskiy show as the young Russian net minder, making his sixth start of the season, put the exclamation point on the game stopping all 20 shots he faced in the final 20 minutes while having to face three New York power play chances, including a 58-second, 5-on-3 chance.”

Postgame notes: D Anton Stralman missed the game with an undisclosed upper-body injury. Stralman went down late in Saturday’s loss to San Jose while appearing to be favoring his middle torso area. While listed as day-to-day, his return by the end of the road trip is questionable. … D Luke Witkowski was recalled from Syracuse of the American Hockey League earlier in the day but was a healthy scratch. … Tampa Bay completed its first season-series sweep of the Islanders since 2006-07. … Including last year’s playoffs, the Lightning have now won seven consecutive games against New York. … C Cedric Paquette has assists in three consecutive games. … RW Ryan Callahan scored his first goal of the season. … RW Nikita Kucherov finished the season with four goals and seven points against the Islanders.

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