TAMPA, Fla. — Anthony Cirelli had the tiebreaking goal midway through the third after failing to score on a second-period penalty shot, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the New Jersey Devils 3-2 on Thursday night.
Cirelli made it 3-2 off a pass from Brayden Point at 11:55, exactly 1 minute after Jack Hughes tied it for the Devils.
Alex Killorn and Mathieu Joseph had the other Lightning goals, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves as Tampa Bay improved to 11-1-1 in its last 13 home games.
“They did what they had to do to win the game,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “I thought we played well enough to win this game.”
New Jersey got a goal and an assist from Damon Severson. Jesper Bratt had two assists.
“They’re the best in the league until someone knocks them off,” Hughes said. “They know how to win. We’ll get to that point one day. That’s a better hockey team than us but we played a really good game. Disappointing we didn’t get two points.”
Andrei Vasilevskiy makes a save on Jack Hughes during the Devils’ 3-2 loss to the Lightning. APTampa Bay played without right wing Nikita Kucherov, who is in COVID-19 protocols. Cooper couldn’t say whether Kucherov will return before next week’s All-Star break.
New Jersey’s Jon Gillies, acquired from St. Louis last month, stopped 32 shots in his seventh game this season and 19th of his career.
The Devils, who have lost six of seven, are without injured goalies Mackenzie Blackwood (left heel) and Jonathan Bernier (season-ending right hip surgery). Blackwood was placed on injured reserve Tuesday.
Joseph put the Lightning up 2-1 on a short-handed rebound goal of his own shot with 5:44 left in the second. It came 26 seconds after Gillies made a pad save on Cirelli’s penalty shot as Tampa Bay outshot the Devils 6-2 while Lightning defenseman Jan Rutta served a 4-minute high-sticking penalty.
The Lightning’s Taylor Raddysh skates ahead of Jesper Bratt during the Devils’ loss. AP“Whenever you could kill off a 4-minute power play and Jo gets one there too, it’s huge and gives momentum going in the right way,” Cirelli said.
Killorn tied it at 1 on a power-play rebound goal early in the second.
Severson gave the Devils a power-play goal in six consecutive games when he opened the scoring from the blue line 4:33 into the game. Tampa Bay had its stretch of not allowing a power-play goal in seven straight games at home end.
New Jersey nearly took a 2-0 lead midway through the first when Yegor Sharangovich’s shot went off Vasilevskiy glove and was swept away from goal line by Lightning forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare.
Gillies stopped all 18 shots he faced during the first. New Jersey had 12 shots in the period.
Vasilevskiy turned aside a right-circle shot from Hughes in the first minute of the third.
“I thought our puck movement was excellent,” New Jersey coach Lindy Ruff said. “Speed going up ice, skated really well. There was a lot to like inside the game.”
