TAMPA, Fla. — Islanders coach Doug Weight had a simple message after a big lead was slipping away: Stay calm.
Anders Lee scored twice and the Islanders held on after nearly blowing a four-goal lead, beating the Lightning 5-3 Saturday night.
“He was just telling us what we needed to hear,” Islanders right wing Josh Bailey said of Weight’s message on the bench midway through the third. “He was just getting his point across. We just needed to calm down a little bit, realize we’re in a good position. We’ve still got the lead in the third period on the road against the top team in the league.”
John Tavares had a goal and two assists, and Andrew Ladd and Brock Nelson also scored for the Islanders (11-6-2), who ended Tampa Bay’s five-game winning streak and handed the Lightning their third regulation loss (15-3-2). Bailey had three assists and Thomas Griess stopped 36 shots to improve to 4-0-1 in his last five starts.
“They executed exactly how we wanted to play,” Weight said.
Yanni Gourde had two goals and Ondrej Palat had the other for the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy had 27 saves. Lee scored during a two-goal first and added a power-play goal at 1:05 of the third as the Islanders went ahead 4-0.
After Gourde and Palat scored 13 seconds apart to cut their deficit in half at 3:26 of the final period, Gourde pulled the Lightning to 4-3 with 3:36 left.
Tavares sealed the Isles’ third straight win with an empty-netter.
Islanders right wing Cal Clutterbuck (illness) didn’t play. … Tavares has 19 assists and 29 points in 27 games against the Lightning. … Tampa Bay entered outscoring opponents 54-28 during the first two periods.