A series of errors from the Lightning made Tuesday night’s game against the Devils look like it would be a repeat performance of Thursday’s one-goal loss at Colorado.
Turnovers, poor puck possession and avoidable penalties put Tampa Bay in a two-goal deficit at the start of the second period in New Jersey.
But some line switches and quick scoring helped get the Lightning back on track at the end of the period, resulting in a 6-3 win in the teams’ final meeting of the regular season (the Lightning finished 2-1 against the Devils).
Neither team could find the back of the net before the eight-minute mark as New Jersey’s Dawson Mercer sneaked up behind defenseman Erik Cernak (who had missed nine games with a lower-body injury) and knocked the puck off Cernak’s stick and into the open net behind goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (22 saves).
The goal didn’t last long however as Pat Maroon evened the score 38 seconds later, slipping the puck past Devils goaltender Jon Gillies (24 saves).
A late goal, however, from New Jersey’s Yegor Sharangovich gave the Devils the edge going into the first intermission, which carried over into the second period as they took a 3-1 lead over the Lightning with a quick goal from Jack Hughes.
Tampa Bay spent much of the period adjusting to new lines. Steven Stamkos moved up to the first line with Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov while Alex KIllorn moved from the second line to skate with Anthony Cirelli and Taylor Raddysh. The “school bus” line with Maroon, Corey Perry and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare was the only one that didn’t change.
It wasn’t until the last five minutes of play that the Lightning seemed to find a groove with quick goals — scored 41 seconds apart — from Stamkos (whose one-timer on the right side brought the team within one) and Killorn (who tipped in a shot from Mikhail Sergachev to tie it at 3-all).
Both teams fended each other off in the third period for the first 10 minutes, until Victor Hedman let a slapshot loose from the blue line, assisted by a screen on Gillies from Maroon.
Kucherov and Bellemare added insurance with third-period goals.
