The New Jersey Devils and Tampa Bay Lightning each had a solid offensive performance to break their respective notable losing streaks.
The teams will look to build momentum at the other’s expense on Thursday night when they meet in Newark, N.J.
Cody Glass scored the go-ahead goal with 7:36 remaining in the third period Tuesday, helping the Devils halt a five-game skid with a 4-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators.
“Obviously, we were going through a bit of a streak there,” Glass said, “but we just came together, and now it’s time to kind of put our game together, put it behind us and just have a clear mind.”
The line of Glass (one goal, one assist), rookie Arseny Gritsyuk (one goal, two assists) and Connor Brown (three assists) combined for eight points on Tuesday.
“Our line was just forechecking hard, getting it to the point, just simple as can be and it worked,” Glass said. “Sometimes that’s just how the game has to go when you’re going through a losing streak; simplifying it is the best case. For us, I thought we just stayed positive and just left everything in the past and had a new game (on Tuesday).”
Brown scored two goals and Gritsyuk added two assists in New Jersey’s 5-3 win over Tampa Bay on Oct. 11.
The Lightning evened the season series with a 5-1 romp on Nov. 18, highlighted by Jake Guentzel’s eighth career regular-season hat trick.
Defenseman Darren Raddysh scored a goal and set up two others in that game and recorded the second multi-goal performance of his NHL career on Tuesday. Raddysh’s offensive outburst helped Tampa Bay snap a four-game losing streak with a 6-1 triumph over the Montreal Canadiens.
“It’s a special night, but I’m just fortunate to play in the NHL,” Raddysh said of playing in his 200th career NHL game.
Jonas Johansson made 26 saves Tuesday while starting his fourth straight game in relief of injured starter Andrei Vasilevskiy. Johansson has turned aside 66 of 69 shots he has faced in his last three contests.
All was not rosy for the Lightning, who saw captain Victor Hedman leave Tuesday’s game after the first period because of an undisclosed injury.
“It’s a little bit of a concern, so we’ll get him re-evaluated here,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “We still have a couple of games on this road trip. But it’s tough to lose the big guy, he’s such an important part of our team. So, fingers crossed.”
A former Norris Trophy winner, Hedman was playing in his third game since missing 12 in a row due to an undisclosed injury.
The Lightning bounced back with the win over Montreal following back-to-back 2-0 setbacks and improved to 1-1-0 so far on their four-game road trip. They are 9-4-2 on the road this season.
The Devils are playing three games in four days during their homestand. They are 9-4-1 at home this season.
–Field Level Media
