John Tavares scored three points (1G, 2A) as the Islanders earned a 5-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Monday night at Barclays Center. Thomas Greiss made 32 saves to help bring the Islanders within one win of a playoff berth.
Three Stars
1st Star: John Tavares (1G, 2A)
2nd Star: Ryan Pulock (1G)
3rd Star: Brock Nelson (1G)
Team Notes:
• The Islanders improved to 10-2-1 at home since the All-Star Break
• New York can clinch a playoff berth with one win or a Bruins regulation loss
• 10 Islanders recorded a point in tonight’s game
• The Islanders are 35-4-1 when they score at least three goals
Player Notes:
• Ryan Pulock (1G) opened the scoring for New York, his first home goal, and added his first career fighting major.
• John Tavares (1G, 1A) recorded his team leading 14th multi-point game.
• Tavares reached the 30 goal mark for the third time in his career
• Thomas Greiss made 32 saves in his third straight win
• Kyle Okposo (2A) tallied his fifth multi-assist game of the season.
• Brock Nelson (1G)recorded the game-winning goal.
• Johnny Boychuk and Matt Martin also tallied goals for New York.
Jack Capuano:
On the team’s response: “I thought we were pretty good tonight. I thought we were resilient. We played against a really quick team in transition. Our penalty kill came up big when they had to early on they got a couple of power plays kind of set the tone for us. I thought we were physical and we were hard on their skill we took away their time and space. A deserving two points for our guys.”
On Clutterbuck: “He’s a gutsy player. He’s one of those guys that leads by example. He got a great defensive-zone face off win too. It just goes to show you the intensity level right off the face off and on the line of scrimmage, Cal gets out then it goes the other way. I thought overall they were strong. Strong performance tonight we possessed the puck down low. We played high percentage hockey.”
On Pulock: “I thought he played well. Again, when Ryan first came here we had a veteran group of guys. He knew that he was going to be in and out of the lineup and he’s handled it quite well. He stepped up tonight. He played hard, not only because he engaged physically but he made some really good decisions with they puck and he made some hard plays when he had to. So (Brian Strait) probably goes back in tomorrow and we got our six guys because like I said it doesn’t look like Cal (de Haan) is going to play.”
John Tavares:
On the game: “I think as a team, Saturday was not good enough and we were embarrassed by it. We needed the big two points. We have to play our type of game and we have to compete. We have to give ourselves a better chance to win and play our type of hockey. I really like the way we responded and now we have to carry it over to tomorrow. That is the real important test – to test our character on a tough back-to-back against a team that has won the President’s Trophy already and we are still fighting hard here. That’s really going to be a great test for us.”
On tonight vs. Saturday: “I thought we were a lot hungrier. You could see we were trying to create some pressure, create some turnovers. We were really trying to be a unit of five of supporting each other with one guy able to dictate the play and where the puck is going. Then we can jump on loose pucks and use our speed to make plays and play strong down low. We were did a much better job of working for it.”
On bouncing back: “I think we bounced back over the course of the year a lot. There is no question about that about our team. We just want to be more consistent. I think tomorrow is a really big test for us, and a great opportunity. We have to build on this one.”
Ryan Pulock:
On the game: “Obviously I haven’t been playing lately but I just stuck with it and told myself that I when I get my chance I just wanted to help the team win. I think that’s all I can do right now – just do everything I can to help the team win”
On his goal: “Just able to drive. I kicked it out and drove to the net – parked myself there and got a bounce off my shin pad. It’s not the prettiest but I’ll take it.”
On his goal/fight: “Obviously the goal was huge. I think it’s my first-career fight but I’m just trying to stick up for my teammate and keep the life going with our club. I’m happy I was able to help out.”
Jon Cooper (TBL Head Coach):
On the game: “A couple things happened, we didn’t think about our net tonight and that was it. We gave up four breakaways in the second period.. We weren’t shooting and ultimately we would spend time in their zone and they’d get a breakaway and score… That was the tough part to watch because they (NYI) were working their tails off. They were competing, they were battling and we just weren’t working smart enough. It came down to when we had chances to shoot it we didn’t.
Ryan Callahan (TBL forward):
On missing a chance to clinch: Obviously, you wanna clinch as fast as you can. You want to try to climb in the standings so it’s disappointing. We need to be better. Like I said, I think our effort was there. We put pucks on net and we had some chances. I thought our power-play actually had a lot of good chances, a lot of good looks in the third. ”
On the game: “We definitely gave up too many odd man rushes. They had three or four breakaways. It’s tough. We played New Jersey and had one of our best structured games, weren’t letting them get much we had the chances low, then tonight it seemed like the exact opposite. We were just worried about the other side of the net and not our own. We can’t play that way. We’re not successful like that.”
