Here are 10 takeaways from Game 5:
1. Coach John Hynes switched up his lineup heading into the 'do-or-die' game. His lineup looked as follows:
Hall-Hischier-Bratt
Johansson-Zajac-Palmieri
Wood-Zacha-Maroon
Coleman-Boyle-Gibbons
Greene-Mueller
Moore-Severson
Butcher-Lovejoy
Schneider
2. Jesper Bratt made his NHL postseason debut in Game 5, thrown into the fire on the Devils top line with Taylor Hall and Nico Hischier. Bratt played 16:00 and had a team-high four shots on goal.
3. Cory Schneider made his third consecutive start. Schneider stood on his head throughout the game, but particularly in the second period where the Devils were forced to kill four penalties. Schneider ended the evening by stopping 35 of 37 shots he faced.
Tweet from @NHLGIFs: Schneider making a lot of these today. pic.twitter.com/GPMqFbPRNe
4. With the absence of defenseman Sami Vatanen (upper body), Mirco Mueller was back in the lineup, skating alongside Andy Greene. Mueller played a personal postseason high 19:09 TOI.
5. The Devils captain had a busy night. Greene registered 23:29 of ice time and registering two shots on net.
6. For a fourth time in five games played, the Devils surrendered the first goal to the Lightning. After the Devils struggled to control the puck behind their own net, a giveaway led to a point shot by Lightning defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, giving Tampa a 1-0 lead at 8:07 of the first period. The puck squeezed through heavy traffic and into the back of the net.
7. Through one period of play, defenseman John Moore led the way on the ice and in shots on goal. Moore played a team high 8:41 of the first period with three shots on goal. Bratt, who was making his playoff debut, was close behind with two of the Devils 11 shots on goal.
8. The Devils ran into penalty trouble in the second period, taking five consecutive infractions, the fifth coming as time expired on the middle frame. Schneider stood on his head and the penalty killers did their jobs to keep the score at 1-0 and the game within reach.
Tweet from @NJDevils: Vintage Schneids with the paddle. #NJDvsTBL | #NowWeRise pic.twitter.com/i3yxVyltlK
9. The Devils were awarded just one power play during the game, which finally came with 10:58 left in the third period. Unfortunately, the Devils were unable to capitalize on the man-advantage opportunity.
10. Kyle Palmieri tallied the lone goal for the Devils in the loss. His shot from the point at 17:00 beat Vasilevskiy to cut Tampa's lead to 2-1. The Devils used an extra attacker on the play with Schneider pulled with just over three minutes to play in the game. Taylor Hall and Will Butcher assisted on the play.
