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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.

Note: if you enjoyed this post, please give us a follow on Twitter @LGDevilsNet, email us at LetsGoDevilsNet@gmail.com or simply leave a comment below. Thank you!

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Devils Fall to Caps in 2017-18 Season Finale

Patrick Maroon had a goal and two assists against the Capitals on Saturday. He has factored into every Devils’ goal for the final two games of the year. Photo: Adam Hunger/Getty Images

The Devils finished up the 2017-18 season with a 5-3 loss to the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena. This puts a bow on what has been a fantastic (if not roller coaster-like) regular season and sets the stage for the Stanley Cup Playoffs: 2018 edition.

New Jersey was not fooling around with taking any chances tonight. They rested Taylor Hall, Sami Vatanen, Travis Zajac and Kyle Palmieri in order to keep them healthy for the postseason. Keith Kinkaid did not dress, as Eddie Lack was called up from Binghamton to back up Cory Schneider – making his first start since March 20 at San Jose – and Marcus Johansson is still being held out. Deb Placey of MSG+ alluded to the fact that it might not be until further into the playoffs (should the Devils get there) that he will play.

Because of this, some guys were playing in what would be essentially an audition for the playoffs. Jimmy Hayes, Drew Stafford, Jesper Bratt and Damon Severson, who have all been healthy scratches lately, were all back in the lineup. How they played tonight will determine how the coaching staff form their lineup for the playoffs.

The Devils would likely have a dance partner for the first round by the end of the night. The only thing they knew was that they could not face the Columbus Blue Jackets. With the outcome of their game versus Washington, the Devils knew that they would be crossing over to the Atlantic Division as the second wild card in the Eastern Conference. They finished with exactly the same amount of points and ROWs as Columbus, but the Jackets took the season series against New Jersey, which is the next tiebreaker.

Whether it was Boston or Tampa Bay (whomever won the Atlantic would be their opponent), they would not know tonight. Boston won in regulation while the Hurricanes defeated the Lightning in overtime. The Bruins have a makeup game on home ice tomorrow against the Panthers that will decide the winner of the Atlantic. If the Bruins win that game in any fashion (regulation, OT or shootout), the Devils will face the Bruins. Should Boston lose, the Devils get the Lightning in the first round. The Bruins and the Cats are making up a game that was snowed out at TD Garden back in January.

Whew!

Between the pipes, Cory Schneider went for the Devils. As stated, Eddie Lack was called up from the AHL to dress as his backup. Schneider, of course, has not won a game in the 2018 calendar year, and was looking to get in some good work before the playoffs began, as the Devils need him to be in good shape for the playoffs. He stopped 21 of 26 Caps’ shots. He also weathered a storm of shots by Alex Ovechkin later in the game. More on why that was later.

For the Capitals, Braden Holtby was in action. He is having a similar season to Cory in that the former Vezina Trophy winner has not been playing up to his own high standards. He made 23 saves on 26 Devils shots.

Ovechkin was looking to reach 50 goals this year. He would need a hat trick to reach that goal but it was certainly within reach for him. He kicked off the game’s scoring with his 48th goal of the year when he scored from his usual spot. Evgeny Kuznetsov and Tom Wilson had the assists on that goal just 2:21 in to make it 1-0 Caps.

The Devils would respond a few minutes later at the 8:10 mark of the first when Nico Hischier scored his 20th of the year from Patrick Maroon and Severson. Severson came in with a well-timed pinch to move the puck to Maroon behind the Washington net. Maroon quickly passed to Nico, who was cruising into the slot. He fired and beat Holtby to the stick side. The game was tied up at one.

According to a tweet by the guys at the great Devils Insiders podcast, with that goal, Hischier reached one of his Schedule A bonuses for the year and would recoup $212,500. Congratulations to Nico on that accomplishment.

Washington would regain the lead with just seconds to go in the first period when Nicklas Backstrom scored from Brett Connolly and John Carlson at 19:32 to make it 2-1 Caps going into the first break.

Michal Kempny scored at the 3:44 mark of the second period to give the Capitals at two goal lead. He got assists from Shane Gersich and Chandler Stephenson.

The Devils would cut it to 3-2 with a little under a minute to go in the second. Miles Wood scored his 19th from Maroon and Pavel Zacha as that line continued their hot streak. Maroon won a puck battle behind the Washington net, trying to pass on his forehand to Wood on the doorstep. That pass was blocked by the Washington defender and bounced back to Maroon’s stick. He skated to the other side of the net and came out from around it, passing on his backhand to Wood in front. Wood shoveled the pass by Holtby on his glove side.

Maroon had now assisted on all of the Devils goals in the last two games. But he was not done. He would get one himself just 2:04 into the third (assists to Zacha and Wood) to tie things up at three. Wood batted down a clearing attempt by the Caps at their blue line. He knocked it right to Zacha, who found Maroon cutting towards the net from the far faceoff circle. He shot and beat Holtby glove side to make it 3-3.

Unfortunately, that was it for the Devils’ offense this game. But it is a good time for the Wood-Maroon-Zacha combination to get hot and we are anxious to see what they can do in the playoffs.

The rest of the scoring for third period saw Ovechkin get one closer to 50 with his 49th unassisted at 5:11. That is where he would end. The game broke down late into a bizzare attempt by the Caps to get Ovechkin the puck at all costs as he tried to get to that magic mark.

Andre Burakovsky would add a fifth goal for Washington at 11:50 from Kempny and Backstrom and that was it for the season.

On the power play for the night, the Devils were 0-for-1 with two shots on goal while the Caps were 0-for-2 with two shots on goal. The Devils also had two shorthanded shots on goal.

Overall, shots were even at 26, the Devils won only 41-percent of the game’s faceoffs, the Capitals out hit the Devils 15-10 and the Caps also had more blocks at 13-11. Individually, Severson led the team in ice time with 21:19 (including 55 seconds on the power play) while Brian Gibbons led the forwards with 19:03 (2:48 on the PK – he had a good game killing penalties). Shots on goal was led by Wood with five. Maroon led in hits with three. Andy Greene led in blocks with three and Brian Boyle and Mirco Mueller led in takeaways with two each.

Next up: the playoffs. The Devils will find out who they will be facing tomorrow following the conclusion of the Boston Bruins-Florida Panthers contest. So far in the East, Washington will take on Columbus, Pittsburgh will face Philadelphia and the Maple Leafs will face the loser of the Atlantic Division – the Devils will get the winner. We will be with you through the playoffs whenever they do start for New Jersey.

Note: if you enjoyed this post, please follow us on Twitter @LGDevilsNet, email us at LetsGoDevilsNet@gmail.com or simply leave a comment below. Thanks!