Tavares’ hat trick lifts Islanders
SUNRISE — Two nights after losing to the Florida Panthers on home ice in Brooklyn, the New York Islanders returned the favor in Sunrise.
The Islanders, residing in the Eastern Conference cellar a season after knocking the Panthers out of the playoffs, got a hat trick from John Tavares and beat Florida 5-2 at BB&T Center on Friday night.
Florida once again was stymied in its quest for an elusive winning streak as the Panthers have not won more than two consecutive games this entire season. The Islanders, which lost to Florida 2-1 at Barclays on Wednesday, took a 2-0 lead on their first two shots of the game.
“It was a rough game all around,” goalie Roberto Luongo said. “We came out flat, we weren’t ready to play as a team — myself included. They got called out by their coach and they were the hungrier team. That’s the bottom line.”
Jason Chimera broke the ice 2:22 in when he boxed in front of Luongo and jammed the puck through.
Just 88 seconds later, Tavares — Luongo’s postseason neme- sis — made it 2-0 from the top of the left circle.
Florida cut its deficit in half when Vincent Trocheck got his 13th of the year by smacking at a loose puck from the slot midway through the period.
The Islanders failed to pad their lead despite a full-on twoman advantage in the second.
After Thomas Greiss stopped Florida’s momentum with some nice saves following the big kill, New York got its 3-1 lead when Nick Leddy scored his second on Luongo in the home-andhome series later in the period.
“We took too many penalties. Even though we killed all of them, we gave them 5-on-3 twice and took momentum away from ourselves,” Jaromir Jagr said. “They had too many power plays; some guys were used too much, some guys not at all. The flow of the game just wasn’t there.”
Florida made it a one-goal game again early in the third when Reilly Smith fired a shot past Greiss with two seconds left on Florida’s third power play chance of the night as Jagr blocked the goalie’s view.
Tavare s all but wrapped things up when he got his second of the night with with 12:10 remaining to make it 4-2.