SUNRISE, Fla. _ The second period on Monday night saw veteran goalie Roberto Luongo helped off the ice, Cal Clutterbuck bear-hugged by John Tavares to keep from storming the ice and three goals that pushed the Islanders to a lead.
The Islanders let that edge slip, went to a shootout and grabbed the extra point on Mathew Barzal's lone shootout goal in a 5-4 win over the Panthers. Barzal had two great, self-created chances in overtime that were turned aside and Jaroslav Halak finished with 39 saves, plus a stop on Jonathan Huberdeau to end the shootout.
After surrendering six goals in Friday's home loss to the Senators, giving up another four was not in the plan. But neither was much of what transpired in the second part of the plan and the Islanders have a quick turnaround to face the dangerous Lightning in Tampa on Tuesday.
The Islanders likely wanted to maintain their late push and try to expand their lead. Instead, a bit of puck-watching led to another tie.
On a Panthers dump-in, Calvin de Haan got taken down and three other Islanders got caught napping as Vincent Trocheck fed Denis Malgin for a quick shot past Halak to make it 4-4 at 5:06 of the third.
Things went from mild to wild rather suddenly in the second period. The first was a sleepy 20 minutes, with Keith Yandle putting the Panthers up at 10:25 and Anders Lee answering at 13:51.
Just 2:31 into the second, Luongo stretched to turn aside Ryan Pulock's slap shot and then crumpled to the ice. The former Islander and veteran of 981 NHL games barely moved as the Panthers trainers got Luongo to his skates and walked him gingerly to the runway, with players from both teams banging their sticks on the ice in appreciation of the 38-year-old goaltender.
James Reimer came in cold and almost immediately surrendered a goal on Thomas Hickey's shot that deflected off a Panthers stick and bounced over Reimer's pad for the first Islanders lead of the game.
That's when the real stuff hit the fan. With the Islanders already killing a penalty, a post-whistle scrum ensued in the corner of the Isles zone and Clutterbuck was deemed to have been overzealous in his manhandling of Trocheck, so referee Ian Walsh issued the only penalty to Clutterbuck to give the Panthers a 55-second five on three.
Clutterbuck and Doug Weight disagreed, to put it mildly. Two seconds after Jordan Eberle stepped out of the penalty box, Aaron Ekblad wired a wrist shot past Halak to tie it.
After another scrum at even strength produced no penalties, Clutterbuck continued to give Walsh an earful from the bench, prompting a minor and misconduct for unsportsmanlike behavior _ and the sight of Tavares body-hugging Clutterbuck to keep him from hopping the boards to continue his chat.
Clutterbuck smashed a few random items with his stick as he headed to the Isles room and the Panthers again headed to the power play. On that advantage, Aleksander Barkov snapped one past Halak to restore the Florida lead at 10:34.
But the Isles' league-best offense kicked into gear. Josh Ho-Sang fed Brock Nelson streaking down the middle for the tying goal at 16:19 and Tavares swept one between Reimer's legs at 18:21 to give the Isles the lead heading to the third.
