Brian Boyle delivered a hard hit and then took advantage of a lucky carom to get the Tampa Bay Lightning a big playoff win.
Boyle scored at 2:48 of overtime to lift the Lightning to a 5-4 victory over the New York Islanders on Tuesday night for a 2-1 lead in their second-round series.
Seconds before the Lightning's rush on their winning goal, Boyle delivered a hard shoulder hit to the head of Thomas Hickey on the left side after the Islanders defenseman had sent the puck forward. No penalty was called on the play.
The Lightning got the puck and were on an odd-man rush as Victor Hedman fired a shot from the left side that was wide. The rebound came off the boards and right to Boyle in front at the right side of the goal and he tapped it in for the win.
"I thought I had it, but I just missed it," Hedman said, "and Boyle was there and prepared for the rebound and stuck it in."
Boyle added: "It was a fortunate bounce."
Nikita Kucherov tied it in the final minute of regulation, and Ryan Callahan, Hedman and Vladislav Namestnikov also scored for the Lightning. Ben Bishop stopped 35 shots.
Islanders coach Jack Capuano couldn't believe there wasn't a penalty called on Boyle's hit on Hickey.
"It's a direct shot to the head. I mean (he's) probably going to get suspended a game," Capuano said. "Those are the type of hits we're trying to eliminate from our game. ... It's frustrating because the play is right there. (The official) is looking right at it."
Lightning coach Jon Cooper disagreed with his counterpart's assessment.
"How many hits were in that game, 70, 80 hits?" Cooper said. "I would say there were 15 harder than the one Boyle was involved in. ... To me, that was a mild hit compared to some of the banging that went on in that hockey game."
Josh Bailey, back after missing the first two games of this series with an upper-body injury, had two goals, and Nick Leddy and Cal Clutterbuck also scored for the Islanders. Thomas Greiss finished with 36 saves.
Game 4 of the best-of-seven series is Friday night.
