The New York Islanders were completely dominated on Monday as they succumbed to an 8-0 loss in Game 5 at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Islanders are now facing the possibility of disciplinary action against forwarding Mathew Barzal who was ejected for cross-checking Lightning defenseman Jan Rutta in the game, which was backed with odds from online united states casinos.
The Tampa Bay team, who is the current defending champion, were going 6-0 in the closing stages of the second period when Rutta and Barzal got into an argument of the word while going to the bench.
Barzal hit the Lightning defenseman with his stick in the chest and then in the face, which caused Rutta to fall to the ice. The trainer came out to check on the defenseman but Rutta skated off on his own and didn’t return for the third period of the game.
While Lightning head coach Jon Cooper had no update about Rutta at the end of the game, Islanders head coach Barry Trotz was disappointed, he said: “I was a little disappointed because it wasn’t going well and he dug it a little deeper for the guys.”
On-ice officials ended up calling for an ejection after dubbing it as a major penalty. The decision remained the same following a review.
Now, there’s a possibility that Barzal will only be handed a fine of $5,000 for his infraction, but if he had to sit out a game, this would be a major blow to the Islanders that aims to keep their race alive at home in Game 6 on Wednesday.
In his last nine games for the Islanders, Barzal has six goals to his name having missed out on the first eight playoff games.
45 seconds into the game, Lightning captain Steven Stamkos found the back of the net from a bounce, his first goal of the series.
“We were talking about our line internally that we wanted to be better and we certainly were tonight, so it was great to see,” he said to the media via real money online casino games. “Anytime something that good happens early in a game, it’s always a great feeling as a player. But more important, it was a spark … for our team.”
Tampa Bay didn’t stop there as they continued with goals from Yanni Gourde (a deflected puck off an Islanders defenseman) and Alex Killorn which led Trotz to pull goalie Semyon Varlamov.
Not long after, backup goalie Ilya Sorokin took a puck to the throat and stayed in the game, but he couldn’t stop the red-hot Lightning team, as they scored three times in the second period. Stamkos and Killorn bagged their second goals of the game.
Centre Brayden Point took the scoreline to 7-0 in the third period on the Barzal major penalty to improve his scoring streak to eight games. Luke Schenn, Lightning defenseman, scored the last goal in his first game since the third of June.
The eight goals are the most the Islanders have conceded since their 8-2 defeat at the hands of the same Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 of the 2020 Eastern Conference final.
“No one expected an 8-0 game, let’s be honest there,” Stamkos added. “But you earn everything you get. And now we’re going to get an extremely desperate team and they’re a proud group over there. We know their rink is going to be rocking.”