TAMPA, Fla.— When the Tampa Bay Lightning needed to regain the momentum, Yanni Gourde took over.
Gourde scored two of Tampa Bay’s three goals late in the second period and the Lightning beat the Islanders 6-2 on Tuesday night.
After the Islanders dominated the first 16 minutes of the second, Gourde had a power-play rebound goal at 16:22 and then gave Tampa Bay a 4-2 lead 1:34 later on another rebound effort.
“They came out really strong and I think we came out flat,” Gourde said. “We score on the power play and momentum turned back around for us. I think that was a key moment.”
The Lightning’s top-ranked power play extended the advantage to three when Vladislav Namestnikov scored 50 seconds after Gourde’s second of the game.
Tampa Bay also got goals from Brayden Point, Andrej Sustr and Chris Kunitz, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves. The Atlantic Division leaders are 11-2-1 at home.
Mathew Barzal and Jordan Eberle scored for the Islanders, who had won eight of 10. Thomas Greiss stopped 28 shots.
“We weren’t very good for a majority of the game,” said star center John Tavares, who had an assist. “We just didn’t do very good things with the puck.”
The Islanders went 11 minutes without a shot to start the first and were outshot 11-2 overall in the period.
There was a complete switch starting the second as the Islanders got the period’s first nine shots, including Barzal’s backhand power-play goal at 7:07. Eberle tied it 2-all just 1:51 later.
“We had the whole ice tilted and had taken the game over,” Islanders coach Doug Weight said. “Two penalties late and it’s 5-2. It’s disappointing but we have to march on.”