Stat Trick: Tampa Bay 5, Isles 2

Thursday night in Tampa, the Islanders suffered their six straight loss, all in regulation, as they blew a 2-1 lead and dropped a 5-2 decision to the Lightning.  On to the trick:

1. Steven Stamkos scored 14:16 into play for the game's only power play goal.  It was the fifth straight game that the Isles had allowed a power play goal and the eighth straight game in which the Isles allowed the game's opening goal.  Matt Moulson tied the game for the Islanders 70 seconds later with his team-leading 21st goal of the season.

2.  The Islanders grabbed a short-lived lead on a Jon Sim goal , his 8th, at 9:12 of the middle session.  But Isles-killer Martin St. Louis tied the game 25 seconds later  and Vinny Lecavalier gave Tampa the lead by converting on a 2-on-0 just 36 seconds after that.

3. Stamkos' 2nd goal of the game (and 31st of the season) gave the Lightning some breahting room midway through the third; Alex Tanguay settled matters with an empty-netter in the final minute.

...a few more...

4.  Antero Nittymaki picked up the win for Tampa, making 34 saves, incuding 28 in the first two periods.  Dwayne Roloson finished with 26 saves for the Isles.

5. The Isles have scored only nine goals in the last seven games; it's their worst offensive drought since scoring seven in a seve-game span from November 20-December 4, 2003.

6. Rookie defender Viktor Hedman, who was a healthy scratch earlier this season, was +4 for the Lightning, while Kuris Foster was +3.
 
7.  St. Louis has a goal in five striaght games for the Lightning, winners of six of their last nine games.
 
8. The Isles were outscored 13-4 on the road trip.  Their power play went 0-14 in the four games; the Isles are 0-19 on the power play in their six road losses in 2010.

9.  Nittimaki picks up his second caareer win over the Islanders, and his first in over four years.  He beat the Steve Sitrling-coached Isles as a Flyer in 2005.

10.  The Lightning lead the season series three games to none, (and six points to zero).  The series concludes on February 13th at the Coliseum.

Up next:  For the second time this season, the Carolina Hurricanes will be the opposition as the Islanders attempt to break a six-game losing streak.  The Isles recorded a shoot-out win on October 21st to break the first six-game losing streak and lead the season series two games to one.  Faceoff is at 7:00 pm on Satutrday night at the Coliseum.

Forever1940 is the nom de plume of Eric Hornick, statistician on Islander home telecasts since 1982. Visit my blog: forever1940.blogspot.com and follow me on Twitter @ehornick