In Newark, the New Jersey Devils’ season continued in its disappointment with a 4-1 loss to the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning.
Tampa’s Nikita Kucherov hit for a goal and three points in the win to get to 102 points on the campaign. THe first skater this season to reach that mark in the NHL.
“He’s a special, special player and it was never more evident than tonight,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “It was fun to watch.
“You don’t win in this league without being a team. One guy can’t do it himself, but you do need a leader out there, and [Kucherov] leads in the locker room, but he really leads on the ice, and when your top guys are playing the right way, everybody follows suit. It’s no surprise he’s where he’s at right now.”
Jonas Johansson made 18 saves in the win.
Tampa improved to 32-23-5.
“We all understand where we’re at. It’s crunch time,” Tampa’s Brandon Hagel said. “We need to play that way every single night if we want to get to where we want to get to, and that’s the Stanley Cup Playoffs.”
After a scoreless first period, Victor Hedman staked the lightning to a 1-0 lead at 1:27 of the middle frame, scoring from the low left side.
“Just get open and ‘Kuch’ will find you,” Hedman said. “I was just kind of mirroring [Kucherov] all the way down just in case he needed me, and it came over.”
Brayden Point pushed the lead to 2-0 at 4:15.
Tyler Toffoli was the lone striker for New Jersey, his second period power play goal came at 6:01 cut into the 2-0 Tampa lead.
“They’ve won championships and they have a lot of those guys that were there,” Toffoli said. “They know what to do and how to win games and, obviously, they did a better job of playing the game today than we did.”
Devils New Jersey dropped to 29-25-4.
“I take full responsibility,” New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. “You want to win, and we’ve dealt with a lot. Players want to win. I’m responsible for the wins and losses, who gets on the ice and who doesn’t get on the ice.
“I said this before, we’ve got a passionate fan base. They want to see wins, and if you look at our home record (14-15-2), that part hurts, so I feel fully responsible.”
H
agel picked up a double midway through the third period to restore the two-goal lead, 3-1.
“[Hagel] does a lot of the same things that (current Devils and former Lightning forward) Ondrej Palat did,” Cooper said. “They’re 200-foot players that never say die, never quit. He’s one of those guys who can play with elite guys, and he’s been showing that for a long time.
“If you had to pick an MVP on our team, ‘Kuch’ would be leading the way, but I would be hard-pressed to say, especially after coming back from the All-Star break, that [Hagel] isn’t right there with him.”
Kucherov collected his goal at 18:25 with an empty-net marker for the 4-1 final count on the scoreboard.
“He’s going to go down as one of the best in the NHL,” Hagel said of Kucherov. “I get the opportunity to play by his side, watch him do that every night. Those are guys I look up to. Those are guys that everyone looks up to and everyone in this room looks up to. It’s a special milestone and hats off to him.”
Akira Schmid made 23 saves in the loss.
You must be logged in to post a comment.