Islanders down Lightning for 8th straight win

Captain Anders Lee collected a goal and two assists as the New York Islanders recorded their eighth straight win, a 5-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday in Uniondale, N.Y. Derick Brassard scored in his fourth straight game and joined Mathew Barzal and Josh Bailey with a goal and an assist for the Islanders, who last won eight in a row in a single season in 1989-90. Defenseman Ryan Pulock also tallied, and Thomas Greiss finished with 33 saves in the victory.

Yanni Gourde and defenseman Ryan McDonagh scored, and Andrei Vasilevskiy turned aside 21 shots for the Lightning, who have dropped three of their past four (1-2-1). Pulock's blast from just inside the blue line sailed between the legs of Tampa Bay defenseman Luke Witkowski and past a screened Vasilevskiy to give New York a 2-1 lead at 11:33 of the second period.

The Islanders doubled the advantage with 7:19 remaining in the third period after Bailey's one-timer from the right circle capped a tic-tac-toe passing sequence with Lee and Barzal. Lee joined Bailey by netting his fifth goal just 1:46 later, as he backhanded a shot off Vasilevskiy and into the net to stake New York to a 4-1 lead.

McDonagh's wrist shot from the point beat Greiss with 1:57 remaining in the third period to trim the deficit, but Brassard sealed the win by scoring into an empty net with 36 seconds to go. Barzal put his slick skating ability on display en route to opening the scoring at 4:48 of the second period.

The 22-year-old breezed into the offensive zone and wired a backhand shot that was sticked aside by Vasilevskiy. Barzal immediately regained control of the puck, skated in from the left-wing boards and wristed a shot that handcuffed the reigning Vezina Trophy winner, with the puck slowly trickling over the goal line. Barzal has scored all of his team-leading six goals in his past seven games.

Tampa Bay answered just under three minutes later. Defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk entered the offensive zone before he fed Gourde, whose sharp-angle backhand shot from deep in the right circle caromed off Greiss and into the net. The goal was Gourde's second of the season. 

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)