SUNRISE, Fla. — The rats came raining down from the seats of BB&T Center, hundreds of little rubber reminders of the Panthers’ improbable run to the Stanley Cup 20 years ago.
With that, the Islanders were reminded how hard it will be to recreate 1993.
Even as the Islanders’ defense showed significant improvement and goaltender Thomas Greiss surrendered half as many goals as in their Game 1 win, the Panthers came away with a 3-1 victory in Game 2 on Friday night to even the series, with Roberto Luongo bouncing back from an abysmal series-opening performance to stop 41 shots.
Greiss was again solid in net, making 28 saves, and the Islanders turned a 20-shot deficit into an 11-shot advantage overnight, but the offense couldn’t do what had come so easily against the 37-year-old Panthers goaltender Thursday, held scoreless until a John Tavares goal with less than four minutes remaining.
The series continues Sunday in Brooklyn in the first Stanley Cup playoff game at Barclays Center, the Islanders heading home after missing an opportunity to take a 2-0 series lead for the second straight year.
“If we play like that, we’re gonna give ourselves a chance to win,” Islanders coach Jack Capuano said. “I thought we probably should come out of here 1-1. They probably deserved it the first night. … It was a great effort. We did a lot of good things, [and] I thought we executed much better.”
The offensive fireworks from Game 1 were dampened by more conservative and determined defensive efforts from each side, preventing the breakdowns that allowed a total of nine goals the previous night.
But the Panthers struck first and struck fast for the second straight night. Reilly Smith notched his third goal of the series just 4:35 into the game. Though the Islanders successfully had responded to three separate one-goal deficits in Game 1, Luongo prevented another comeback by coming out in vintage Vancouver form.
Making amends for his dreadful start to the series, in which he allowed five goals and made 21 saves, Luongo was impenetrable, making save after save — including a beautiful stop on a Ryan Strome one-timer with his blocker midway through the second period — while rarely allowing a rebound. It was Luongo’s first win since the 2011 Stanley Cup finals with the Canucks, snapping a string of seven straight postseason starts with a loss.
“He’s been in the playoffs before, and he’s had big moments,” Isles defenseman Nick Leddy said. “He’s a big-time player.”
Luongo held off the Islanders long enough that the Panthers could take a two-goal lead. Smith again made it all happen, finding Nick Bjugstad for a one-timer from behind the net with 13:43 left in the second, finished over Greiss’ glove.
The Islanders finally ended the shutout when Tavares buried a rebound off the boards with 3:33 left in the third period to make it 2-1, but the Panthers defense kept the pressure off Luongo from there, closing out the win on Dmitry Kulikov’s empty-net goal with 9.3 seconds left as the crowd sent countless rodents to the ice in celebration.
“It was a tighter game, but there were still a lot of chances,” Tavares said. “I thought we controlled more of the game. Just ran out of time.”
