NHL Playoffs: When is Islanders vs. Panthers Game 5?

After a split at the Barclays Center, the Florida Panthers will head home to face the New York Islanders in Game 5 on Friday night.

In a series filled with explosive offense, it was the Florida Panthers’ defense that made the difference in a 2-1 win over the New York Islanders on Wednesday night in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference first round. The two teams will get a day off before heading to the BB&T Center in Florida in a critical Game 5 that will put somebody up 3-2 in the series.

Puck drop for Game 5 is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. Eastern on Friday night. Television coverage is yet to be determined, but the game will be available for streaming on the NBC Sports Live Extra app.

While the Panthers didn’t start quite as fast on Wednesday as in the previous games in the series, they struck first yet again on Teddy Purcell’s Power play goal at the 15:14 mark of the second. After the Islanders tied it up on a five-on-three late in the period, Alex Petrovic added the game-winner with just over ten minutes left for his first career playoff goal.

Jaromir Jagr recorded his first point of the series (and 200th of his playoff career) by assisting the Purcell goal and played easily his best game of this postseason so far. Even better news for Florida was its defense cutting down on the miscues that had plagued it all series, as the Panthers were able to frustrate the Islanders with their superior size.

The Islanders will continue to lean on John Tavares and Thomas Greiss to steal a road win on Friday, as both have been terrific throughout the series.

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