Monday evening, the Tampa Bay Lightning headed to the Prudential Center, Newark, New Jersey, for game three in this best of seven series, as they lead against the New Jersey Devils 2-0 following victories Thursday and Saturday in Tampa.
Cory Schneider started in goal for the Devils, following Keith Kinkade being pulled mid-way through game two after allowing five goals from fifteen shots, despite Schneider not winning a game out of any of the twelve he has started in 2018.
Marcus Johansson also returns to the Devils line up, following 37 games absence due 
to concussion.
Ryan Callahan, however, will be missing from the Lightning line up after he left the game early on Saturday with an upper body injury.
After the game two victory and their pair of power play goals, Tampa forward J.T. Miller said “If you look at the two goals we scored, we had four guys under the hashmarks and that’s really hard to defend if you’re the other team. Killorn and I try to go to the net and the other guys have a world of talent. They make the good shots and the nice plays, and we try to open up the ice.”
Lightning have scored in three out of their four power plays so far in this competition, and it is something they are looking at continuing in to game three.
The first period had no goals and saw just two penalties. J.T. Miller after almost four minutes was holding Kyle Palmieri’s stick was killed by the Lightning, and Andy
Greene’s slash on Yanni Gourde with just sixteen seconds left on the clock meant the Devils started the second with Greene in the penalty box.
Coming back from the first break, Tampa made the best use of the power play when Miller took the puck deep in to the New Jersey zone, sending it out to the corner where it was picked up by Steven Stamkos and sent around the back of the goal to Nikita Kucherov. Kucherov sent a pass to centre, where Alex Killorn chipped it in to the goal.
The second goal of the game came at 12:24 in the second period. The Devils were pressuring the Lightning goal, but seemingly unable to get through, and as the defence went to clear the puck all five of the Tampa skaters were in a clump on one side of the ice. Taylor Hall was heading down the centre and as the puck was being pushed out, Hall saw it, and his one timer sailed past Andrei Vasilevskiy to tie the game.
Blake Coleman took a penalty for the Devils late in the second (holding Miller), seeing Lightning start the third once more on a power play, and once more they converted this in to a goal. Killorn and Kucherov with a couple of long passes, before sending it on to Stamkos in centre who put the visitors back in the lead.
The Devils picked up a power play goal of their own four minutes later while on a 5 on 3. A long shot by Will Butcher getting through to hit the back of the net, assists from Taylor Hall and Kyle Palmieri.
Stefan Noesen pushed the Devils in to the lead with 7:05 left on the clock. Green taking control of the puck inside the Devils defensive zone, sending it across the ice to Hall who took it deep in to the Lightning zone and then passed it across to Noesen in space to finish the job.
With less than three minutes left on the clock, the Devils gave Tampa another power play after Hall tripped Brayden Point. Tampa then pulled Vasilevskiy to get another skater up to pressure the Devils goal further. The puck came to Coleman out at the boards, and he cleared it from the New Jersey zone, managing to keep the puck heading in to the centre of the ice, where, with nothing to stop it, it sailed in to the Lightning goal to make the score 4-2.
Lightning decided to keep Vasilevskiy out, to keep the pressure on New Jersey, and as they went in to attack the goal, Point lost control of the puck and it bobbled out to Ben Lovejoy guarding the Devils goal. His back hander stayed straight and went all the way down the ice to slip in to the undefended goal, taking the score to 5-2 and seeing the New Jersey Devils seal the victory.
Brian Boyle and Cory Conacher had an altercation with twenty three seconds left on the clock, which saw Boyle pick up a penalty for holding (served by Marcus Johansson) and ten misconduct penalties being given by the officials – five for each team.
Vasilevskiy faced thirty nine shots stopping, while Schneider faced thirty six.
Game four will take place Wednesday evening in New Jersey, before heading back to Tampa for game five on Saturday.
You must be logged in to post a comment.