Thursday night in Tampa saw game one of the Stanley Cup Playoffs between the Lightning and the New Jersey Devils.
Speaking after the game, Devils coach John Hynes said “I thought Tampa came out real hard and we looked a little bit tentative and unsure, but I thought we settled into the game, particularly in the second period, and started playing more of our game. The second half of the game is more how we want to play.”
Unfortunately for the Devils though, by the second half of the game they already had a big hill to climb, seeing themselves sat the wrong side of a three goal deficit.
Ondrej Palat started things off for Tampa after fifteen minutes of the first period, assists coming from Tyler Johnson and Ryan McDonagh.
This was quickly followed up by a goal from Johnson, thirty seconds before the break, Palat with an assist and Brayden Point earning a point too.
Less than two minutes in to the second, Yanni Gourde made it three to Lightning with a power play goal as Miles Wood sat a penalty following his slash on Dan Giradi. Palat getting another assist, Mikhail Sergachev joining in this time too.
As time ticked on and the half way mark was passed, the Devils starting really getting in to the game, and Taylor Hall earned himself an unassisted goal in his play off debut, after a bad pass from the corner from Palat behind the Tampa goal missed its target and came to Hall on the far side of the goal, and finding Andrei Vasilevskiy wrong footed.
Almost half way through the third, the Devils found the mark once more, while on a power play (J.T. Miller following a slash on Mirco Mueller). Taylor Hall and Will Butcher providing the assists to Travis Zajac.
While the competition was getting hot, Lightning weren’t done as proved by Alex Killorn who extended the Tampa lead once more following an assist from Gourde.
Heading in to the final two minutes, the Devils pulled the netminder, and while they were putting pressure on the Tampa goal, Nikita Kucherov managed to pull the puck away, dance out of the Tampa zone, and with plenty of space lined up an easy shot, knocked in from the Devils blue line, ending the game 5-2.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made twenty nine saves for the Lightning and Keith Kinkade made twenty seven for the Devils.
Game two in the best of seven series, will be played in Tampa on Saturday afternoon.
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