Published April 28, 2016
Cal Clutterbuck scored the tiebreaking goal with 1:39 remaining to cap New York's three-goal third period, lifting the Islanders to a 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers on Monday night.
Kyle Okposo and Josh Bailey scored earlier in the third as the Islanders scored all their goals in a 5 1/2-minute stretch after trailing 2-0 heading to the final period. Thomas Greiss finished with 23 saves as the Islanders snapped a two-game skid and pulled one point behind the crosstown-rival Rangers for second place in the Metropolitan Division.
New York also increased its lead to four points over Pittsburgh — fourth in the division and holding the Eastern Conference's top wild-card spot. The Islanders visit the Penguins on Tuesday night.
Aleksander Barkov had a goal and an assist, Nick Bjugstad also scored and Jonathan Huberdeau had two assists for the Panthers. Roberto Luongo stopped 25 shots.
Okposo got the Islanders on the scoreboard with his 18th of the season with 7:10 remaining. Bailey tied it 1:21 later with his 12th of the season.
Clutterbuck's side-of-the-net jam shot then gave New York the lead.
Florida had an 11-5 advantage on shots in the first period, with Barkov tapping Alex Petrovich's diagonal cross-ice feed past Greiss for his 22nd goal with 4:49 to go.
Bjugstad made it 2-0 with a power-play goal as he one-timed a pass from Barkov 8:03 into the second period for his 11th of the season.
The Panthers finished the game 1 for 2 on the man advantage, and they killed both New York power plays.
While the Panthers spent much of the first two periods playing in New York's end of the ice, the Islanders did not make Luongo expend much energy. Loungo only had to make 11 saves in the first 40 minutes, and his toughest stops came early in the third period as he stonewalled Brock Nelson and Shane Prince.
Later in the period, Luongo stopped Anders Lee at the goalmouth.
New York finished with a 28-25 advantage on shots.
NOTES: Prior to the game, Vincent Trocheck was named the NHL's Second Star of the Week. During the week of March 7-13, Trocheck had one goal and five assists in three games. In that stretch, the Panthers were 2-0-1. ... The Islanders announced F Mikhail Grabovski has been activated from the injured reserve. He missed eight games with an upper body injury but did not dress for this game. ... Calvin de Haas returned to the Islanders' lineup after missing four games with a lower body injury. ... Florida scratched Steven Kampfer, Derek MacKenzie and Teddy Purcell. ... The Islanders scratched Steve Bernier, Eric Boulton, Brian Strait and Marek Zidlicky. ... The announced attendance was 14,106.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/clutterbuck-caps-3-goal-3rd-as-islanders-beat-panthers-3-2