The Tampa Bay Lightning will not sweep the New Jersey Devils as the black and red put up 5 goals on 41 shots on goal to defend their home turf with a 5-2 winner on Monday night in Newark, New Jersey.
Following a scoreless first period in which the Tampa Bay Lightning outshot the hometown Devils 12-8, a holdover slashing penalty to Devils defenseman Andy Greene cost New Jersey early in the second. Alex Killorn put home a power play goal for the Bolts giving Tampa Bay the early 1-0. For Killorn it was his 19th career goal in the postseason, and the Bolts were looking to shock the Newark, New Jersey crowd.
The lead would not last as Taylor Hall tied the game on an unassisted tally intercepting a pass from Killorn and tying the game putting the puck past Andrei Vasilevskiy. The game went into the third period with the Bolts once again on the man advantage due to a late penalty in the second period on New Jersey, and the Captain made the Devils pay.
Steven Stamkos 16th career playoff goal gave Tampa Bay an early 2-1 lead in the third period as the Bolts’ Captain found a slot for a wrister that snuck past the glove of Devils’ goaltender Cory Schneider. The tally seemed to wake up the Devils offense who scored a tying goal on the power play by Will Butcher, and Taylor Hall’s third point of the night was an assist on a one timer by Stefan Noesen past Vasilevskiy to give the Devils their first lead of the series.
The Bolts had a massive chance with just over two minutes to play by gaining the man advantage, but they couldn’t come up with the game tying tally. The New Jersey Devils added two empty net goals and celebrated their first playoff win in over five years and now will look to tie the series on Wednesday night with a 7:30pm face off in Newark.
Photo Courtesy Of Getty Images