Alex Killorn scored the game-deciding goal in the shootout to lift the Tampa Bay Lightning to another win over New Jersey, downing the Devils, 4-3, Thursday night in Newark, N.J.
After Tampa Bay’s Ross Colton and New Jersey’s Yegor Sharangovich left the match knotted at 1-1 after two shootout rounds, Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy (32 saves) denied Jesper Boqvist in the top of the third.
Killorn followed with the winning shot off the left post, giving the Lightning (41-22-6, 88 points) their second win in three days over the Devils (44-17-7, 95 points).
Steven Stamkos scored twice and had an assist, and Colton added one as the visitors improved to 4-1-1 in their past six games. Mikhail Sergachev had two assists while Vasilevskiy moved to 31-17-4 this season.
For the Devils, Timo Meier scored twice, and Tomas Tatar had one. Nico Hischier had two assists. Netminder Akira Schmid posted 21 saves but fell to 8-4-2.
On Sunday in Tampa, the two clubs will conclude their season series with the week’s third meeting.
In a mostly evenly played, penalty-free opening frame, Tampa Bay outshot the home side 10-8 and was the only side to find the net.
Just 69 seconds into the rematch, Sergachev’s long blast after a faceoff win by Stamkos struck the leg of Colton and caromed in for the second-line left winger’s 16th goal.
After beating Vasilevskiy just once in Tuesday’s 4-1 loss in Newark, the Devils matched that mark at 8:59 of the second when Tatar notched his 16th off a strong rush that started behind Schmid’s goal.
In a turning point moment in the second period, the Lightning killed off a full two-minute, five-on-three New Jersey power play after Stamkos and Erik Cernak went off together at 15:51.
To make matters worse for the Devils as they failed to score, they trailed just 20 seconds after Stamkos left the penalty box. The captain took a backhanded pass from Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and snapped one home at 18:11 to put the visitors back up.
At 9:41 of the third, Meier scored his second goal with New Jersey and the first on his new home ice by sending home a rebound from a sharp angle.
The teams traded power-play goals in the last five minutes, with Stamkos netting his 29th at 15:13 and Meier answering with his 34th just 2:31 later.
–Field Level Media
