Round One, Game Three: Now We Have a Series! Devils Defeat Lightning 5-2

Cory Schneider was back in net for the Devils. He turned aside 34 of 36 Tampa Bay Lightning shots. Photo: Ed Mulholland/USA TODAY Sports

Playoff hockey is back, ladies and gentlemen! In the Devils’ first playoff game at The Rock since June 9, 2012 (game five of the Stanley Cup Final versus the Kings), they scraped and clawed back into the series with a 5-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The Devils were back in New Jersey with a new look to their lineup. For one thing, Marcus Johansson was in, playing in his first game since the January 23 game at Boston when Brad Marchand cheap-shotted him as he was cutting to the net. That hit cost him the rest of the regular season and two playoff games, but number 90 was in the lineup tonight. He was playing in his first playoff game with the Devils, his first since he was with Washington last season. Johansson played on a line with Pavel Zacha and Patrick Maroon.

Joining him as changes to the lineup were Drew Stafford (playing on a line with Miles Wood and Brian Boyle), slotting back in up front as the Devils went back to 12 forwards and six defensemen, and Cory Schnedier. Cory was starting his first playoff game as a New Jersey Devil. We know all about the drought – he had not won a game since December 27, 2017 versus Detroit – and that this was his first playoff start since a May 7, 2013 loss to San Jose as a Vancouver Canuck.

But he played a fantastic game tonight. He would nearly have to leave the game just before the Devils took the lead later in the third period after he stretched his leg out to make a save and then had a Tampa player bump into his outstretched left leg. With his history of hip and groin injuries, the Prudential Center held its collective breath. But he would fight through the pain and continue on. He ended up making 34 saves on 36 Tampa shots.

Going for Tampa was Andrei Vasilevskiy again. He stopped 36 of 39 Devils shots. The Devils added two empty net goals and so finished the game with 41 total shots on goal.

The Devils had a crowded press box with newly-signed Joey Anderson, Christoph Bertschy, Jesper Bratt, Brian Gibbons, Michael Grabner, Jimmy Hayes, Michael Kapla, Eddie Lack, Nick Lappin, Michael McLeod, Mirco Mueller, Blake Pietila, Kevin Rooney, Steven Santini and Brian Strait all scratched. Binghamton did not qualify for the AHL Calder Cup Playoffs, for what it’s worth.

The game was tight through the first period, with no score going into the first intermission. What we did have was a penalty to the Devils’ Andy Greene that was called slashing officially, but what looked more like a cross check to Yanni Gourde at 19:44. In any case, the Lightning would have the majority of their power play time on fresh ice in the second period.

Their lethal power play wasted no time, scoring 42 seconds into the second frame when Alex Killorn was all alone in the slot, took a pass from Nikita Kucherov and scored his fourth of the series. Steven Stamkos had the secondary assist. The penalty kill continued to be a point of contention for the Devils, as Tampa was 2-for-5 with eight shots on goal on the man advantage. The Devils went 1-for-7 with 13 shots on net. In a game when the Devils knew they had to stay out of the penalty box, it was Tampa who still capitalized when they did get chances.

The Lightning had the 1-0 lead, but the Devils tied things up at the 12:24 mark of the second when who else, but Taylor Hall notched one unassisted. Hall skated the puck low to high and dished to Kyle Palmieri. Palmieri fired on net and the rebound came to Hall in the slot. He unleashed a shot and found the back of the net to tie things up at one. Initially, Boyle and Palmieri were given assists on the goal but the scoring was changed and it was called unassisted at 12:24.

Either way, it was great for Hall, who hit the crossbar on a partial breakaway late in the first period after beating Vasilevskiy cleanly. Bryce Salavdor of MSG joked that there was a dent in the crossbar due to how hard Hall had shot the puck there. Also, a Devils goal had been waved off midway through the second period when Blake Coleman’s shot crossed the goal line after the Tampa net came off of its moorings. Toronto reviewed the shorthanded chance, but the call on the ice stood: no goal.

Prudential Center errupted following Hall’s goal, but things were about to get a whole lot better.

But first, Tampa would take another lead. This came when Stamkos notched his first of the playoffs just 38 seconds into the third period from Kucherov and Killorn on the power play. Cory got a piece of the shot, but could not hold on to it. It was 2-1 Tampa.

Once again, the Devils had taken a penalty late in a period and paid for it early in the next. It was 2-1 Lightning, but things were about to turn up for the Devils.

It began with Will Butcher on the power play. It began at the 2:39 mark of the third when Tampa’s Cedric Paquette went off for tripping Butcher. Then, at 3:39, the Lightning took a bench minor for too many men on the ice. The Devils had about a minute or so of 5-on-3 power play time. And Butcher responded. At the 4:03 mark, he would score from Hall and Palmieri to tie things up at two.

Palmieri guided the puck back to Butcher at the point. Butcher gave to Hall at the near half wall. He gave back to Butcher, teeing him up to snipe one top shelf by Vasilevskiy. The game was now 2-2 as the Devils scored on the power play. They would not convert on the ensuing 5-on-4, but the damage was done.

And the Devils were not done. New Jersey took a 3-2 lead when Stefan Noesen scored his first of the playoffs at 12:55 from Hall and Greene. It started with Greene giving to Hall in the Devils’ zone following a delayed offside on Tampa Bay. Hall then weaved his way up ice and, once he broke into the Lightning zone, fed Noesen, who fired a one-timer by Vasilevskiy to give the Devils their first lead of the series.

Hall said during the post game that he knew Noesen had a great shot and was just looking to set him up.

Tampa would pull Vasilevskiy wtih about 1:20 left int the game and the Devils would pot two empty netters. The first came at 19:02 when Coleman scored shorthanded and unassisted to make it 4-2 (the Devils were in the middle of a huge kill and Tampa had a 6-on-4 advantage with the goaltender pulled). Ben Lovejoy then scored unassisted at 20 seconds later to make it 5-2, your final.

The game ended with Tampa on the power play as things got a bit chippy late. Tempers began to flare when Nico Hischier was speared by Victor Hedman in the groin and no call was made. This followed Coleman receiving a high hit from Mikhail Sergachev that was called. This was after the Noesen goal and the bad feelings contiued to the final whistle. In the end, Paquette (Tampa), Boyle (New Jersey), Chris Kunitz (Tampa), John Moore (New Jersey), Braydon Coburn (Tampa), Drew Stafford (New Jersey), Cory Conacher (Tampa), Damon Severson (New Jersey), Mikhail Sergachev (Tampa) and Miles Wood (New Jersey) were all assessed misconduct penalties at 19:37. The Devils’ Boyle also was called for holding, which is why the Lightning ended the game on the PP.

But that was enough. The Devils came away with the 5-2 victory and cut the series lead to 2-1 in favor of Tampa. For what it’s worth, the last time the Devils came back from a 2-0 series deficit was 1994 against the Boston Bruins in the second round.

In the end, Travis Zajac led all Devils skaters in ice time with 24:23 (7:48 of power play time and 5:02 on the PK). Sami Vatanen led all d-men in TOI with 22:42 total. Hall and Coleman tied in shots on goal with six, Coleman also led in hits with five. Zacha had two blocked shots to lead the Devils in that category and takeaways were led by Coleman with two. Coleman really imprinted himself on this game and made his mark.

Team-wise, the Devils out shot Tampa 41-36, won 55-percent of the game’s faceoffs, were out hit 34-33 and had one more blocked shot, 9-8. The three stars of the game were: Taylor Hall (first), Cory Schneider (second) and Stefan Noesen (third).

Next up, Wednesday and game four at The Rock. The Devils will look to pull even in that one and make this into a full-on series.

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Round One, Game Two: Devils Push Back Late, But Fall to Bolts 5-3

Nico Hischier, the first overall pick in last year’s Draft, scored his first Stanley Cup Playoff goal in a 5-3 Devils loss in Tampa in game two. Photo: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images

Things like this happen. When you are going up against a team with as potent a power play as the Tampa Bay Lightning have, games like this are bound to appear.

The Devils fell to the Lightning 5-3 at Amalie Arena in game two of their best-of-seven first round Stanley Cup Playoff series today.

Things started out well enough with the game tied at one going into the first intermission. But the wheels began to fall off for New Jersey in the second period before a late surge in the third nearly resulted in a dramatic comeback.

They would not complete that comeback, but would help set the tone for game three by being more physical and hard on the puck. The Devils showed up in the third period.

Roster-wise, Brian Gibbons was out along with Jesper Bratt, Jimmy Hayes, Marcus Johansson and Drew Stafford up front as the Devils went with 11 forwards. Damon Severson slotted back in on the blue line as they went with seven defensemen. Steven Santini (a d-man) and Eddie Lack (goaltender) were the two other healthy scratches.

The Devils went right back to Keith Kinkaid between the pipes. He was solid early on and only faltered in that disastrous second period. He faced 15 shots and stopped ten of them. He would be pulled after Tampa’s fifth goal in favor of Cory Schneider, seeing his first playoff action in a New Jersey uniform. He stopped all ten shots he saw.

For the Lightning, one of their big stories was Andrei Vasilevskiy, who stopped 41 of a whopping 44 Devils shots. The Devils bombarded him, especially late in the game. They outshot Tampa 10-6 in the first period, 15-11 in the second and 19-9 in the third. He saw a lot of rubber but stood tall for the Bolts and was part of the Devils’ problem on the afternoon.

There was a slight delay about 45 seconds into the game when a bolt broke on one of the Lightning bench gates. That needed to be fixed before we could get things going proper. It was quickly repaired by the ice crew and we were off and running.

Brayden Point scored his first of the playoffs just 12:15 into the game to make it 1-0 from Ondrej Palat and Ryan McDonagh. Point was the recipient of a good bounce as the puck landed right on his stick through the Devils’ zone and he roofed it over Kinkaid. Tampa was an NHL-best 36-6-1 when scoring first in a game. This did not bode well for the Devils.

But the Devils had a quick answer. That answer was Nico Hischier. Nico scored his first career Stanley Cup Playoff goal unassisted just 1:23 after the first Tampa Bay goal. Nico won an offensive zone faceoff to Michael Grabner. Grabner gave to Mirco Mueller at the near point. He went point-to-point with Severson, who fired on net. Vasilevskiy made the initial save, but the rebound came to Hischier in the slot. He fired, beating the Tampa goaltender over his trapper. That made it 1-1 as we headed into the second period. Things seemed to be working out alright for the Devils.

Then things fell apart.

It began, appropriately enough, on the power play. Ben Lovejoy tried to clear a puck that was on edge and ended up shooting it out over the glass, being hit with a delay of game infraction. From there, the Tampa power play took over. Alex Killorn potted his second of the series at 3:14 of the second. Steven Stamkos had missed the net on a shot and it came right to Nikita Kucherov, whose shot was redirected in by Killorn to make it 2-1 Lightning.

That opened the floodgates. Tyler Johnson scored at 4:36 from McDonagh and Point as he too tipped McDonagh’s shot by Kinkaid. That made it 3-1.

At 6:01, Kucherov struck unassisted to make it 4-1. This one went in off of Sami Vatanen’s skate and stick on a play that Tampa did not even get credit for a shot on goal for.

Killorn finished the onslaught on the power play again (this was set up by a somewhat suspect unsportsmanlike conduct call on Kyle Palmieri). He scored off of a scramble in front where Kinkaid lost his stick. That came at 13:12 with assists to Kucherov and Victor Hedman. it was now 5-1 Lightning.

Following this goal was when Cory Schneider came on in relief for Kinkaid. He would be perfect on his end of the evening.

The power play saw Tampa go 2-for-3 with four shots on goal. The Devils, in contrast, were 0-for-3 with six shots.

The Devils would get one back late in the second, with less than 30 seconds left in the frame when Vatanen scored from Andy Greene and Cory Schneider. On the play, Vatanen took a pass in the Devils’ defensive zone from Greene and skated the length of the rink. He snapped a shot off from the top of the slot and beat Vasilevskiy stick side cleanly to make the score 5-2.

Earlier in the play, Vatanen had hit Tampa forward Ryan Callahan. Callahan left the ice injured and would not return. A blow for the Lightning and we will see how it plays out later in the series.

The third period was just a little bit different from the other two periods. Namely, the Devils dominated puck possession and zone time. Cory made a big save early in the period as he slid across his crease and knocked a shot down with his glove.

The Devils had chances, such as when Miles Wood had the puck knocked off of his stick on a partial breakaway midway through the period.

They would break through at the 11:57 mark when Blake Coleman scored his first career Stanley Cup Playoff goal from Travis Zajac and John Moore to make it 5-3. After sustained zone pressure, Zajac played catch with Moore at the point. Zajac teed up Coleman – who was stationed in the high slot – and he fired a one-timer past Vasilevskiy to make it 5-3.

From there, Nico hit the post with a shot and then, in a separate play, Miles Wood had seemingly made it 5-4. The puck got caught up in Vasilevskiy’s pants and no conclusive video proof was evident for the situation room in Toronto to call it a definitive goal. It was blow to the Devils and they would not recover. They would pull Schneider with about two minutes remaining in the game but would not get any closer. Tampa came out of their home arena with a 2-0 series lead.

Statistically, the Devils outshot Tampa 44-26, won just 34-percent of the game’s faceoffs, outhit the Lightning narrowly 36-35 in what was an extremely physical game and had 11 blocked shots to Tampa’s ten.

Individually, Vatanen led the Devils in ice time with 20:55 (1:04 on the PP and 23 seconds on the PK) narrowly beating out Taylor Hall, who had 20:43 of time on ice. Hall led in shots on goal with six, Patrick Maroon led in hits with five, Moore led in blocks with three and Lovejoy had two takeaways, which led in that category.

Next up, Monday and game three up north at Prudential Center. Hopefully, the Devils can use the tone that they set in the third period of this game to pull out a win in one or both of the games at The Rock. We will have you covered here, as always.

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