In Tampa, the Lightning came up short on Sunday in a 5-2 loss to the New Jersey Devils.
Tampa took a 2-0 lead on a first period goal from Nikita Kucherov, and a second period goal from Alex Killorn, and that was it as New Jersey scored five unanswered goals for the win.
“To put it in a nutshell, I really liked our first period and the first eight minutes of the second period,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “We scored that second goal after they had a couple of chances … then an inexcusable goal off a face-off right away. That never should have happened. That just triggered their momentum. Then it was just senseless turnovers and managing the puck.”
Jesper Bratt had a hat trick in the New Jersey win.
Vitek Vanecek made 22 saves in the win.
“We played way better today,” New Jersey’s Nico Hischier said. “It would have been a tough one to swallow if we’d given up the lead again, but we all around played our game. You just have to learn from those games. We know that if we play our game, we can beat those teams.”
New Jersey moved to 45-18-7.
“We started managing the puck horrendously and we invited them into the game,” Lightning forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare said. “We have control of the puck in the first. In the second, we have a few turnovers. It’s on us. Despite the first period, they were really patient in the second, waiting for us to make mistakes.”
Lightning dropped to 42-23-6.
“We have to go back to keeping it simple,” Lightning defenseman Zach Bogosian said. “We are a very successful team on the forecheck and getting pucks behind them and then going to work.”
Hischier and Nolan Foote also scored for New Jersey.
“It fostered a ton of great memories and shows how important ‘Pally’ was to this organization,” Cooper said. “The upward of 700 games he played with us and the countless playoff games. He raised a couple of Cups with us. If you talk about importance to a franchise and what he brought in the biggest times during the biggest games in the biggest moments … that was Ondrej Palat.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 34 saves. in the loss.
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