Stanley Cup semifinals: Lightning-Islanders Game 1 live updates

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The Lightning were held scoreless until the final minute of a 2-1 loss to the Islanders Sunday at Amalie Arena, slipping into a one-game deficit in their best-of-seven Stanley Cup semifinal series.

Mathew Barzal scored late in the second period and Ryan Pulock early in the third to give New York a 2-0 lead.

Brayden Point scored on the power play with 53.7 seconds remaining to put Tampa Bay on the board. Andrei Vasilevskiy had been pulled for an extra attacker, giving the Lightning a 6-on-4 advantage.

Islanders goalie Semyon Varlamov stopped 30 of the 31 shots he faced. Vasilevskiy had 29 saves on 31 shots.

Here’s how it happened:

Third period

Lightning will start the period with 1:23 remaining on the Palmieri penalty

Hedman blocks Pageau shot from the high slot

Islanders clear

Cernak shot from low in the right circle saved by Varlamov

Islanders kill the penalty

Maroon backcheck thwarts Barzal rebound opportunity

Barzal leaves the ice after blocking a shot with top of knee

Goodrow shot blocked in front

Killorn shot saved by Varlamov’s right pad

Beauvillier shot saved by Vasilevskiy

ISLANDERS GOAL. Ryan Pulock beats Vasilevskiy with shot from the right point. Islanders 2, Lightning 0.

Sergachev inexplicably passes back to Pageau off the rush in the Islanders zone

Adam Pelech chases Ondrej Palat off the puck on a potential breakaway

Mayfield steals the puck from Palat

Lightning pull Vasilevskiy in favor of an extra attacker

Palmieri clears the puck

Islanders ice the puck with 1:51 to play

Brock Nelson penalized for cross-checking Kucherov, and the Lightning will have a two-man advantage with Vasilevskiy pulled

Stamkos shot blocked

Hedman shot deflected in front

LIGHTNING GOAL! Point scores on the power play shortside high over the glove off Varlamov’s shoulder with 53.7 seconds remaining. Islanders 2, Lightning 1.

Islanders ice the puck with 23 seconds left

Kucherov shot misses the net

(Islanders win 2-1)

Second period

David Savard give-and-go with Yanni Gourde leads to a scoring opportunity for the Lightning

Jan Rutta shot from the right point hits Brayden Point in the left hand

Josh Bailey chance goes off the crossbar after a turnover deep in the Lightning zone

Rutta drive blocked by Scott Mayfield

Bailey shot from the right circle saved by Vasilevskiy

Colton redirect of a Savard shot goes wide

Vasilevskiy stops Beauvillier backhand shot from the slot after giveaway from Point at the Lightning blue line

Gourde shot from left circle off the rush goes off Varlamov’s leg pad

Savard shot from in front saved by Varlamov

Tyler Johnson backhander from the right circle saved by Varlamov. Colton can’t get to the rebound

Johnson shot from the point through a screen is covered by Varlamov

Mayfield shot from right side saved by Vasilevskiy

Barzal beats Hedman with an inside-outside move and shoots on Vasilevskiy, who makes a great save

Killorn backhander from the right circle saved by Varlamov

ISLANDERS GOAL. Steven Stamkos turns the puck over just inside the blue line in the Islanders zone, Josh Bailey gets the puck up ice to Mathew Barzal, and Barzal gets a step on Jan Rutta before beating Vasilevskiy between the legs. Islanders 1, Lightning 0

Erik Cernak penalized for tripping Mathew Barzal

Blake Coleman skates with the puck out of the Lightning zone

Coleman forces another turnover and Hedman clears the puck

Another Lightning clear

Killorn with a great shorthanded opportunity as he drives the right side of the net after Jan Rutta blocked a shot and passed the puck up the boards

Lightning kill their third penalty of the game

Palmieri penalized for interfering with Cernak

Kucherov shot misses the net and the Isles clear the puck

Stamkos shot tipped up over the net in the closing seconds of the period

Hedman can’t keep the puck in the zone, and the period ends

(Isles lead 1-0 after two periods)

First period

We thought it would be a physical series, and the shenanigans start eight seconds into the game as Barclay Goodrow and Matt Martin are penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct. So it’s 4-on-4 hockey right off the bat

Ryan McDonagh shot from the point stopped by Semyon Varlamov

Brock Nelson shot is blocked

Vasilevskiy makes a save on Nelson shot

McDonagh stick prevents a potential tap-in chance for Anthony Beauvilier after a pass from Nick Leddy

Nick Leddy blocks Mikhail Sergachev shot from the left circle

Back to 5-on-5 play

Victor Hedman drive from the point goes off the netting out of play

McDonagh penalized for tripping J-G Pageau after Travis Zajac steals the puck from Anthony Cirelli

Sergachev clears the puck

Islanders offside

Jan Rutta drive shorthanded drive from the right circle stopped by Varlamov

Blake Coleman forces a turnover in the neutral zone and gets a shorthanded chance from the left circle that is saved by Varlamov

Lightning kill the McDonagh penalty

Yanni Gourde hits Andy Greene behind the Islanders net

Alex Killorn levels Mathew Barzal at center ice

Kyle Palmieri shot from left circle goes up over the net

Vasilevekiy stretches right to left to stop Palmieri chance from in front after a feed from below the goal line from Pageau

Goodrow penalized for roughing Palmieri

Islanders did not have a shot on their first power play

Erik Cernak clears the puck

Islanders offside

Gourde breaks up a pass and sends the puck down the ice

Vasilevskiy stops Noah Dobson shot from right point

Beauvilier shot from left circle deflected wide

Dobson shot turned aside

Sergachev blocks Jordan Eberle shot from left circle

Lightning kill penalty. Isles had four shots on goal

Brayden Point misses the net on a breakaway while being pressured by Greene. Point tried to shoot left after moving right and go up over the blocker

Ross Colton shot from outside the left circle gloved by Varlamov

Vasilevskiy makes save on Casey Cizikas redirect from in front

Leddy shot from the slot blocked

Islanders outshoot the Lightning 14-11 in the period

(No scoring after one period)

Your pregame scouting report

If it feels like 2020 all over again, well, it should.

A Lightning team led by forwards Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point, defenseman Victor Hedman and goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy is playing the New York Islanders for a chance to advance to the Stanley Cup final.

Only this time, teams are back playing in their home arenas, the road to the semifinals stayed within their divisions, Tampa Bay has its sights set on a second consecutive Cup and Steven Stamkos is a participant.

Stamkos’ presence is no small thing.

Limited to three minutes last postseason following surgery to repair a core muscle injury, the Lightning captain has 13 points over the first two playoff series, including five goals and one game-winning goal. Eight of his points have came on the power play, including three goals with the man-advantage.

Aside from the obvious leadership he provides, Stamkos has teamed with Anthony Cirelli and Alex Killorn on one of the Lightning’s most effective lines and been an ever-present threat from the left circle on a power-play unit with Kucherov, Point, Killorn and Hedman that has been near unstoppable.

Ironically, it’s the Islanders’ captain who is absent from this series. Anders Lee has been out since midseason with a lower-body injury.

What might we see from Stamkos when the Lightning play the Islanders in Game 1 in front of close to 15,000 spectators this afternoon at Amalie Arena?

We’ll find out, starting at 3 p.m., as Tampa Bay aims to strike the first blow in a series that will determine one of the two Stanley Cup finalists.

Setting the scene

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