Kahbibulin

The Tampa Bay Lightning are getting awfully comfortable at the Nassau Coliseum in this playoff season. For the second game in a row, Nikolai Kahbibulin shut the door on the New York Islanders, turning aside 32 shots leading the Bolts to a second straight 3-0 win over the Islanders. A win that gives the Lightning a strangle hold on the Islanders with a 3 game to1 lead, going into game 5 in Tampa Friday night.

Martin St. Louis once again regained his scoring touch putting the all important first goal behind Rick DiPietro at 10 minutes of the first period. The Islanders controlled the play for most of the first period, outplaying and out chancing the Lightning but by the first period buzzer a lead in shots of 12-6 was for naught, the score on the board was Tampa 1-Islanders 0.

The Lightning picked up the pace in the second getting their second goal of the game when Ruslan Fedotenko found his mark on DiPietro. Frederik Modin collected a goal in the third finishing off the Tampa scoring for the night with a goal at 1:34 off of a pass from St. Louis.

But again the night belonged to Nikolai; the Tampa goaltender frustrated the Islanders time and time again, collecting his third shut out in this series. It marked the first time in Islanders history that they have had three shut outs go against them in the playoffs.

The way that Kahbibulin is playing, the smart money would be on one more shutout before the Islanders season comes to an end.