John Tavares Comes up Huge in Overtime, Islanders lead Series 2 Games to 1

from islanders.nhl.com

For the first time in 22 years, the Islanders won a playoff game in overtime.

The hero in that game was David Volek who scored one of the most famous goals in Islander history when he beat Tom Barrasso to send the Islanders to an improbable series win.  Incidentally, this was the last time the Islanders won a playoff series also 22 years ago.

The Islanders and their fans are hoping that Tavares’s goal is a good omen for a possible series win.

After a demoralizing game two loss in which the Islanders blew a two goal lead on two separate occasions, the Islanders responded exactly the way that they had to respond.

The Isles were severely out-hustled, outworked, and out-muscled in game two and turned the tables in game three.

Unleashing 41 shots on Capitals’ goalie Brandon Holtby, the Islanders could have easily scored 5 or 6 goals in this game.

As it stood, the Isles led 1-0 on a tip-in goal from Kyle Okposo until the Capitals turned their effort around.

They finally broke through on Jaro Halak when Niklas Backstrom scored his second of the series with just over 6 minutes to go in the game.

The Islanders responded just seconds into overtime.

New York won the opening face-off and fired in on Holtby’s net.  Holtby gloved the shot easily, and dropped it for his defense on the side of the net.

The Caps’ clearance attempt was held at the point by Nick Leddy.  Leddy found Nikolay Kulemin whose initial effort was stopped, but John Tavares found the loose puck and popped it into Holtby’s net sending the raucous Uniondale crowd into jubilation.

The Isles will look to take the 3-1 lead on Tuesday night when they host the Caps in game 4.