Boyle's Crunch Creates Space; Pops OT Winner for Lightning
The New York Islanders were supposed to be the club bringing grit to this Round 2 pairing with Tampa Bay.
They are, but they're not alone.
The Isles had the stat advantage in hits, 44-34, but the Lightning brought the thunder when it counted.
It was delivered in overtime, compliments of Brian Boyle:
Dude was busy all night making certain his pads were put to good use.
He even warmed them up in the pre-game skate, with a bit of drive-by help from Travis Harmonic:
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Not that the former Ranger ever needs a reason to throw around or throw down, but if that wasn't enough, seeing a Niklas Lidström-type -- as opposed to a Scott Stevens-type -- blueliner blow up teammate Jonathan Drouin ...
... was enough for Boyle to relish even more the chance he got to square the ledger with Hickey.
Not surprisingly, the coaches had different perspectives:
Whatever. With Hickey still struggling to recall what dimension he was in, the net effect was Boyle being totally unmarked by an Islander:
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This is becoming quite the series.