The New Jersey Devils were coming off a loss after winning two in a row. Last night, the red and black were hoping to re-enter the win column. However, instead, they blew a two-goal lead to the now Atlantic Division leading Tampa Bay Lightning.

First Period

The New Jersey Devils would get the first quality scoring chance of the game. Captain Nico Hischier picked up the puck in the Devils’ zone. Then Pavel Zacha would get the puck and he and Hischier would enter the Tampa Bay Lightning’s zone. Unfortunately, a Hischier shot attempt off of Zacha’s feed would go wide. 

The first half of the first period was low on shots, surprisingly. New Jersey finally broke through with not only the game’s first shot, but the game’s first goal. Dawson Mercer tried to pass the puck to Jack Hughes while skating towards the Tampa Bay net. Hughes wouldn’t get the puck, but Eric Cernak made a misplay. Before Andrei Vasilevskiy could get to it, Jack Hughes would poke away at it to give the Devils’ a 1-0 lead. The goal was later changed to Mercer instead of Hughes.

Tampa Bay would answer back immediately. The puck would find itself behind the Devils’ net and the defensive pairing of Ty Smith and P.K. Subban was unable to clear. Former Devil, Patrick Maroon, would score his eighth goal of the season to tie the game at 1-1 before the midway mark of the game’s first period. The assist was given to Pierre-Edouard Bellemare who was claimed by the Seattle Kraken in last year’s expansion draft. He was reclaimed by his old team off of waivers, just like Nathan Bastian was with the Devils. 

The game’s first penalty would go against Tampa Bay for too many men on the ice. The Devils would get the go-ahead goal on the man advantage off the stick of Yegor Sharangovich. Sharangovich previously had two goals against the Lightning in their first meeting of the season. With the power play goal, Sharangovich reached ten goals in what has been a rather inconsistent season for the sophomore winger. 

Second Period

The scoring started a lot earlier in the second period than the first. Just like the first period, it was New Jersey who scored first. When Cal Foote was unable to clear the zone, Mercer kept it in at the blue line and was picked up by Hughes. Hughes picked up his own rebound off of Vasilevskiy’s left pad to backhand it home and give New Jersey a 3-1 lead. Hughes has scored in back-to-back games. 

The Lightning would get their first power play after Mason Geertsen took a hooking call. New Jersey continued their excellent penalty-killing, which hasn’t allowed a goal in the month of February. The Devils would receive their second power-play opportunity when Jan Rutta took a hooking call as well. 

Tampa Bay head coach, Jon Cooper, began to shuffle lines after the Devils’ third goal. Captain Steven Stamkos would be paired with Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point. Stamkos brought the Lightning closer by scoring at the 15:32 mark of the second period. Tampa would tie it up a second later when an Alex Killorn shot from the blue line appeared to be deflected by Mikhail Sergachev. The goal would ultimately get credited to Kilhorn. 

Third Period

The Devils would get a scare early in the third as a Victor Herman shot rang off the post. Seconds later, McDonough would shoot a puck through traffic. Jon Gillies would make the glove save to keep the score at three goals each.

The Lightning would finally find the period’s first goal when Hedman scored from the blue line. Hedman’s 11th goal of the year gave Tampa their first lead of the night. Once again, the Devils blew a two-goal lead and allowed three unanswered goals from the Lightning. 

Jimmy Vesey would rush into Tampa’s zone with the puck but opted to wait for reinforcements instead of taking the shot. After Subban couldn’t hold the zone, Kucherov would grab the puck for a breakaway. He scored to extend Tampa’s lead to 5-3. Kucherov, who has been dealing with injury all year, now has 20 points in 14 games. 

Gillies would make a save off Corey Perry, but was not able to control the puck which found itself sitting on the doorstep. Bellmare would score the tip in to give the Lightning a 6-3 lead. That would lead to a goaltending change for the Devils, with Nico Daws replacing Gillies.

Frustrations would mount and eventually Mason Geertsen and former Devil Patrick Maroon would start having heated conversations on the ice. It would be Nathan Bastian and Cernak who would eventually drop the gloves before Bastian falling to the ice ended the short bit of fighting. Each player received a five-minute major and Geertsen got a game misconduct.

The fighting wouldn’t stop there. After Marian Studenic crashed Tampa Bay’s net, the Lightning showed their displeasure. Sergachev and Damon Severson ended up dropping the gloves. Studenic falling on Vasilevskiy was clearly unintentional after he was pushed in the crease by Foote.

The Devils would be awarded a penalty that would end the third. New Jersey couldn’t add another goal to their imminent defeat. the Devils would lose their second straight game before an over-week-long break against Tampa with the final score of 6-3.