The Tampa Bay Lightning made short work of the New York Islanders in opening the Eastern Conference final, posting their first big 8-2 success, Monday through Tuesday night in Edmonton. The Florida demonstration resulted in braces from Brayden Point (3 assists), who opened the scoring after one minute and fourteen seconds, and Yanni Gourde, as well as other goals from Nikita Kucherov (4 assists), Victor Hedman , Ryan McDonagh and Ondrej Palat.
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New York, morale in the skates
Tampa Bay in the process tied a franchise record for the number of goals scored in a play-off game. On the New York side, morale must be in the skates, and they seemed heavy on the ice, just two days after their qualification for the seventh decisive game at the expense of Philadelphia in Toronto. Jordan Eberle had however quickly equalized in the first third, but Tampa Bay immediately unleashed hell on the Islanders’ cage. Nick Leddy scored the second New York goal, before his team conceded, again, two more.
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The second round is scheduled for the night from Wednesday to Thursday.
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