February 1, 2025; Tampa, Florida, USA; New York Islander’s defender Tony Deangelo (4) celebrates after scoring a goal against Tampa Bay Lightning on overtime at Amalie Arena. Mandatory Credit: Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images The growing New York Islanders will go for their eighth straight victory as they visit Florida Panthers on Sunday.
New York continued its driving force for an eastern wild card on wild cards when it beat Tampa Bay 3-2 at overtime on Saturday and moved within three points from Lightning for the second wild card in the eastern conference.
In the meantime, Florida will look for her third straight victory after rolling past the Chicago Blackhawks 5-1 on Saturday afternoon.
Tony Deangelo made 33 seconds overtime to give New York his win. It was Deangelo’s first goal since he was signed as a free agent by the islanders on January 24.
“Everyone has called in. It is obvious that it is a four -point game if it goes the other way,” Deangelo said. “Everyone knows where the position is and we have a long way to go, but these games mean a lot.”
Adam Boqvist and Kyle Palmieri also scored for the islanders and Simon Holmström had two assists. Ilya Sorokin made 28 rescues. Boqvist played his first game for the islanders after being claimed from exceptions on Friday.
“The new guys, since they have been here, have taken a lot of energy,” said Jean-Gabriel Pageau about Boqvist and Deangelo. “They seem to fit in really well and they want to be part of it to help us win.”
Palmieri has goals in Back-to-back games after a 14-game target dryer, while Holmstrom extended his score to three matches by five points (three goals, two assists) during that span.
New York’s Scott Mayfield left the game during the second period with an injury and did not return, and Mathew Barzal went to the dressing room at the last minute of the regulation after blocking a shot. Coach Patrick Roy had no update about any of the players after the match.
Florida, who only played her second match in six days, was after 1-0 after seven seconds on Saturday when Landon Slaggert made the fastest game opening in Blackhawk’s long history.
“Sometimes it makes you wade into a game,” Panther’s coach Paul Maurice said about the early deficit. “We were pretty good after that. Strong first period for us. Pretty good start to finish.”
Sam Reinhart had one goal and two assists, and Carter Verhaeghe had a goal and an assist for Panthers. Captain Aleksander Barkov had two assists for his 200th career multi-point game, and Sergei Bobrovsky made 24 rescues.
“It was nice to win the victory,” said Verhaeghe. “We like where our game is, we try to build something here and come to our identity a bit. We played quite well in recent weeks and did not get the results. But we have kept our game.”
Reinhart became the first player in Panther’s history to scored at least 30 goals for four seasons in a row.
Maurice became the fourth head coach in NHL history with 900 wins with regular season. The others: Scotty Bowman (1 244), Joel Quenneville (969) and Barry Trotz (914).
In the team’s first seasonal meeting, Matthew Tkachuk made twice and the visiting Panthers collected from three goals for a 6-3 victory on October 26. Sam Bennett scored the prominent goal during the third period.
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