“It didn’t feel like we started on time, down quick, and in this league when you’re chasing the game, it’s hard to come back,” Lightning forwrard Yanni Gourde said postgame. We’ve got to set ourselves up for a little bit of a better start and we can stay in the game a little bit longer.”
Gourde was the first Lightning player on the scoresheet 7:31 into the second period, shelving a shot over New Jersey goalie Jacob Markstrom once Brayden Point had gained the zone with speed.
Gourde looked to make it a one-goal game later in the second period, but the apparent goal was waved off because the puck went in directly after being played with Gourde’s glove.
Lightning assistant captain Ryan McDonagh would end up with the 3-2 goal for Tampa Bay on a one-timer with 2:38 left in the second period. After a Devils player broke their stick in the defensive zone, Brandon Hagel skated to the left circle before dishing to the point to tee up the defensemen, whose windup beat Markstrom.
“It was a lot better,” Lightning captain Victor Hedman said of the second period. “Our forecheck was good, we had good gaps and pucks to the net, and we had traffic in front and made it hard for him to see the puck. We know what we can do, and obviously that PK goal sucked a little bit of momentum out of us, but at the end of the day, we know what we’ve got in here. We just gotta put it together for 60 (minutes).”
A shorthanded breakaway in the third period by Jesper Bratt made it 4-2 Devils, and Brown’s second goal of the game made it 5-2.
In the game’s final minutes, Lightning defenseman Darren Raddysh’s first goal of the year cut the score to 5-3, one that held as final.
Lightning defenseman Max Crozier led all Lightning players with two assists for his first career multi-point game in the NHL, while goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.
Despite an 0-2-0 start to the season, Tampa Bay hasn’t begun to panic.