NHL | The weather helped to win. Carolina has three match points

Nečas scored the third point in the current playoff in the fifth minute, when his shot in front of the goal bounced happily to the finishing defender Brent Burns. The Canadian veteran stretched at the top of the circle and his unobtrusive attempt went into the goal.

Six minutes later, the visitors made it 2-0, and the defender made a breakthrough again. Dmitrij Orlov punished the unsuccessful transition of the Islanders into the offensive zone, who from the second wave drove to the record of compatriot Andrej Svečnikov. In the second period, the Islanders dramatized the game. After 40 minutes, they reduced the score to 2:3, but could not do more and are one step away from quick elimination.

Goalkeeper Frederik Andersen led Carolina to victory with a great performance in the third period. The Islanders won the final 20-minute period 11:3 on shots, but they were not up to the task of the Danish goalie. “After a good two periods, the Islanders pushed us and created some great chances. But Freddie eliminated them all. He was a difference player today,” coach Rod Brind’Amour praised the 34-year-old goalkeeper.

Andersen made a key save in the 55th minute when, despite falling during the move, he managed to eliminate Alexander Romanov’s attempt. “He was making incredible catches the whole match and he pulled off such a save five minutes before the end. I have no idea how he got that hand there. I don’t know what to say about it. He was our best player,” said Svečnikov, who helped the narrow win with two goals.

Tampa Bay, like the Islanders, is still waiting for a win in the playoffs. In the third game of the series, the Lightning led over Florida until the 30th minute, but then the guests took the initiative and clearly dominated the second half 4:1. Matthew Tkachuk scored two goals in the 5:3 victory, Brandon Montour and Steve Lorentz added a goal and an assist to the statistics.

“We are in the position we wanted to be in before the start of the series, but the intermediate result can be deceiving. Tampa is playing very well and all the games have been pretty even so far. The little things and the fact that we can rely on the goalkeeper are decisive,” said Tkachuk, who is the team’s most productive player with five points for three goals and two assists.

Tampa would need a more significant contribution from Nikita Kučerova. The Art Ross Trophy winner for the most productive player of the regular season scored in all three games, but with three assists he is not even the team’s most productive player and falls short of the great performances that led the Lightning to the playoffs.

So far, Steven Stamkos is the leading scorer for Tampa, who has been successful in all three games. But on Thursday night, he regretted the unused power-ups. “We had a few, unfortunately we couldn’t create a proper chance. So far, we are not doing as well as we are used to in power-ups. Maybe even that costs us better results,” captain Lightning was looking for the cause of the unsuccessful entry into the elimination fights.