Andrei Vasilevskiy on Tuesday stopped 24 shots and Nikita Kucherov had three assists as the Tampa Bay Lightning rediscovered their scoring touch to beat the New York Islanders 4-2 in Game 2 of their NHL semi-final series.
Victor Hedman tallied a goal and an assist, Brayden Point and Ondrej Palat scored early goals as the defending Stanley Cup champions leveled the best-of-seven series at 1-1.
“We’ve got good leadership in our room, and they keep our team from getting too high or too low,” Point said. “I don’t know, it’s tough to put a finger on it really. It’s gone good so far, but we can’t be happy with just this one. It’s going to be a hard, long series. We’ve got to look at the next one.”
Photo: AFP
The Lightning bounced back from a tight 2-1 loss in Game 1, the first time they have trailed in a Stanley Cup playoff series this spring.
“We knew they were going to come with a good response after we got the first game,” Brock Nelson said. “I thought we did a pretty good job coming out of the gates 1-1, but it’s hockey. Bounces, breaks, whatever it may be, they were able to get a couple and get the lead, and we weren’t able to get it back.”
Mathew Barzal also scored for the Islanders, while Semyon Varlamov stopped 23 shots.
It is a familiar scenario for the Lightning.
They lost the series opener twice, including in the Stanley Cup final, en route to winning the championship last season over the Dallas Stars.
So the Lightning’s top guns were primed for a standout performance in front of a limited crowd of 14,700 on Tuesday in Tampa, Florida, after the Islanders shut them down in Game 1.
Tampa Bay opened the scoring halfway through the first period of Game 2 when Point got in close and fired a shot under the left arm of Varlamov to stretch his scoring streak to five games.
Nelson stuffed home a rebound to tie it 1-1, but Palat restored the one-goal lead for Tampa by getting to the open space in the slot and burying a shot past Varlamov 13 minutes, 15 seconds into the second period.
Varlamov was forced to leave the game in the first period after Point crashed into him on a hard drive to the net.
Varlamov returned for the start of the second period, ending a brief spell in goal for backup Ilya Sorokin.
OUT AGAINST INDONESIA: Taiwan reached the semi-finals at the tournament for the first time by defeating Denmark, with Chou Tien-chen beating Viktor Axelsen Taiwan yesterday crashed out of the Thomas Cup team competition in Chengdu, China, but achieved their best result at the top-tier badminton event by reaching the semi-finals. Indonesia were too good in the semis, winning 3-0 to advance to today’s final against China, who eliminated Malaysia 3-1. In the opening singles of the men’s team clash at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Center Gymnasium 2, Anthony Ginting defeated Taiwan’s Chou Tien-chen 21-18, 21-19 in 51 minutes, which put a huge hole in Taiwan’s aspirations to perhaps even make the final. In the men’s doubles, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Ardianto downed Lee Yang and Wang
NO DOUBT: Spurs star Wembanyama was unanimously selected as NBA Rookie of the Year, winning all 99 votes to become the first Frenchman to capture the honor The Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday night produced a dominant defensive display to seize a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven playoff series against the Denver Nuggets with a 106-80 road victory. The third-seeded Timberwolves harassed Denver relentlessly to claim a second straight win over the NBA champions as the series heads back to Minneapolis for Game 3 on Friday. Karl-Anthony Towns and Anthony Edwards scored 27 points apiece, but the star of the show was Minnesota’s suffocating defensive effort, which knocked Denver out of their stride almost from the tip-off. The Timberwolves finished with 11 steals and 12 blocks, in sharp contrast to
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek on Saturday came through “the most intense and crazy final” she has ever contested to avenge her loss to Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s Madrid Open final with a grueling three hour, 11 minute victory in the Spanish capital. Coming back from 1-3 down in the decider and saving three match points in total, Swiatek claimed a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9/7) victory to secure the Madrid Open trophy for the first time. “Well, who is going to say now that women’s tennis is boring, right?” Swiatek said. Swiatek, who picked up the 20th title of her career, and ninth at
Playing soccer and competing for trophies is the best way that many transplanted Hong Kongers and Macanese have found to stay in touch, and to interact with Taiwanese society, said officials at the Taiwan-Hong Kong-Macau Football Friendship Cup, which was held on April 13. Twelve clubs, mostly of players and coaches originally from Hong Kong and Macau, took part in the tournament in New Taipei City. The event is sponsored by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) and the Taiwan-Hong Kong Economic and Cultural Co-operation Council. Participating teams were from the wider Taipei area, Hsinchu, Taichung, Kaohsiung and other areas. They divided into two