NEW YORK ISLANDERS 2 vs. FLORIDA PANTHERS 1 (2 OT)
Islanders advance to second round with double OT victory over Panthers in Game 6
Recap:
John Tavares scored with 54 second remaining in regulation to force overtime and then won the series in the second OT frame to send the Islanders to the second round for the first time since 1993. Thomas Greiss made 41 saves in the 2-1 win in front of a raucous Barclays Center sellout.
Three Stars
1st Star: John Tavares (2G)
2nd Star: Thomas Greiss (41 saves)
3rd Star: Nick Leddy (1A)
Team Notes:
• New York topped the Florida Panthers in the first round four games to two.
• The Islanders advance to second round and will play the Tampa Bay Lightning.
• The Islanders are 12-5-3 at Barclays Center since Feb. 1
• This marks the first time since 1993 that the Islanders have advanced to second round.
• Tonight’s win marked the first time since 2002 that the Islanders recorded back-to-back post-season wins.
Player Notes:
• John Tavares (2G) scored his team-leading fourth and fifth post-season goals.
• Thomas Greiss made 41 saves in the win.
• Nikolay Kulemin (1A) tallied his first point of the post-season on Tavares’ goal.
• Nick Leddy also registered an assist on Tavares’ third period goal.
• Alan Quine (1A) recorded a point on three of NYI’s four GWG this series (1G, 2A)
Jack Capuano:
On the series: “You could just see how close the series was and how it could have been one team or the other. For us, I thought we started the game pretty well, and they had the surge and our goalie made some big saves. I thought after that, in the third and in the overtime, we played really well. We lost players on the bench, so there was a lot of line juggling and guys worked extremely hard.”
On Tavares: “He’s a pretty reserved guy. He’s grounded and he’s very humble in the way that he goes about his business on a daily basis. Weather it’s good days or bad days. There’s a calmness to him, that he knows he has to lead by example. and that’s what you get for 91. He’s not one of those guys that’s going to be “rah rah”. When he plays the right way, its contagious for our group and I just think that’s what he’s done since I’ve been here. He’s got great creativity as we know but he’s a great leader for our hockey club.”
On winning the series: “As a coach, obviously you want to try and win a Stanley Cup. That’s what coaching and teaching is all about, watching your players grow and succeed. You try and guide them in the right way, with the right framework. I think our guys have done that. We’ve gone through so much that for me what it means is that the guys battled.The last two months of the season we lost a lot of players, and it didn’t matter who we put in the line up – they found a way. Down the stretch, just to get in the wildcard – first time in 34 years back-to-back 100 point seasons, just goes to show you the resilience in that room and how tough it is in the Eastern Conference to get into the playoffs.”
On the series: “I think it gives a group confidence. It’s just a matter of maturity for our young players and how they have grown as a group and that’s what it’s about and what you want to see. I just think it’s going to get us some confidence knowing that we can win at any type of hockey we play.”
John Tavares:
On the series: “It’s hard to believe it’s even over, hard fought. I give Florida a lot of credit, that was a heck of a series, obviously every game was tight. To get over that hump, we’re looking forward to the next one. It’s great to reward our fans, it’s been a long time for them and a lot of us, we’ve been here for a while so it feels good.”
On the OTs this series: “We battled hard. Florida gave it everything they had, they had some great stretches, played us hard. We’re a team that has really battled all year, it’s kind of been that year for us where we have been able to respond at crucial points, and we got it done again.”
On the meaning of this game: “I used to pretend I would win the Stanley Cup when I was a kid… one step at a time obviously. But that’s the ultimate dream. Scoring a game-winning goal to clinch a series, especially on home ice it’s pretty special.”
On the win: “First and foremost for our fan base, they have been dying for this. No question, a lot of us haven’t been here that long but some of us have been here a while – obviously Nielsen has been here the longest, 10 years… Myself, 7 years and Kyle (Okposo) 8 or 9 so it’s time. We had to get over this hump. Obviously there is still a long way to go, they’ve deserved it, they’ve waited through some tough times, to be apart of that too it’s a good feeling right now.”
On the series win: “It’s great. You know you get to come to the rink tomorrow. You know how hard the series is fought and they played great, had some really good stretches, I mean three of the games go to overtime, they hit the crossbar (tonight). It’s a matter of inches, as we’ve learned before so it’s good to be on the other side of it.”
Johnny Boychuk:
On the win: “It’s a good job by everybody. Just battling through and getting this win it was a tough task and now we have to put it behind us and move forward and look at another team.”
On the Lightning: “It’s going to be a tough series. We need to just keep playing the way we know we can and good things will happen.”
On this year vs. last year: “They have a good core here for a while. Hopefully you can do something nice for everybody that’s been here for a while and going through hard times.”
On Tavares’ goal: “It’s only fitting, he’s been here for a long time. To score both goals, it was huge for him and our team.”
On the team: “It’s great to see these guys finally win a series and hopefully win more.”
Travis Hamonic:
On winning it in Game 6: “I mean first of all that would of been tough because you want to close it out here and then anything can happen in a Game 7, we see it around the league all the time. Our fans were going nuts I said it this morning that the crazier they got the more we would embrace it so once we scored it was awesome in overtime”
On Tavares: “He’s one of the best players in the league.. I mean that’s as clutch as a performance that you can find, ties it up and then scores the winner. I said it earlier in Florida, insert whatever words you want to, to describe him, that’s what he is, he’s an amazing player. ”
Kyle Okposo:
On the feeling after the win: “Elation. I felt like the longer that game went on, the worse it was going to be for us because I thought we were outplaying them. We were able to make three huge plays in this series in the overtimes. That’s the turning point of the series. To do it on home ice, in front of our fans, and play the way that we did, I am extremely proud of our group and what we accomplished.”
Gerard Gallant
On the series: “I’m real disappointed obviously. I thought we played a great series. Another double overtime game, three overtime games, we lose them all. I’m not disappointed with my team. They played hard, they came together. Like you said our season is over tonight that’s what is disappointing.”
On the team: “We never quit. Nobody picked us to finish first place in the Atlantic and we had 103 points and we’ve come a long way. I think anybody who knows our hockey team, knows how good our young players are and how good we’re gonna be for the next number of years. That’s the positive. Like I said, it doesn’t feel too good tonight but I know going forward we’ve got a great team.”
On Tavares: “He’s a star player in this league, and he comes up big when he has to and he scored a couple overtime goals against us. He’s just a great hockey player, he’s a star and he came out with a big goal tonight and a big play. That’s what he is, he scored both goals for them, he’s a big time player.”
Shawn Thornton:
On the series: Tip your hat to their goalie, he played an unbelievable round. Their captain stood on his head too, he made some big plays for them. All those games could have went either way. Obviously it stings right now, but this teams a good young team thats gonna be good for a lot of years. It’s a learning experience for us, we got to remember how it feels in this room right after this game. It absolutely sucks. We have to learn from some of the mistakes we made, I think thats the lesson here. It hurts, to answer your question, it hurts.”
Jaromir Jagr:
On the series: “It was close. I thought we got it. One minute left. We were so close to scoring on the empty. Maybe thats what this team needs to move…..next year. Of course I felt like we had it in the bag. It’s going to be game 7 and its not.”
Roberto Luongo:
On the series: “It was tight and not a lot of room out there. Their goalie was playing well so I was trying to do the best I can to match that and get my team a chance. It’s unfortunate that we lost all three games in overtime. It’s a tough one there.”
