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The Devils hit the road for a two-game Florida road trip starting against the Panthers Saturday night. The game can be seen on MSGSN and heard on the Devils Hockey Network, including right here at NewJerseyDevils.com. Puck drop is 6:08 p.m. ET.
Here are some observations from the game...
- The Devils and Lightning shared power-play goals in the final five minutes of regulation. Stamkos scored with 4:47 remaining in regulation to give Tampa Bay a 3-2 lead. The Devils answered with their own power-play goal from Meier with 2:16 left to tie the game, 3-3, and force overtime.
"(Meier) hit his shot, just like Stamkos hit his shot," head coach Lindy Ruff said. "If you look where Stamkos put it, heck of a shot. If you look where Timo put his shot against a real good goaltender."
- Meier scored his first goal at home (and first of the game) for the Devils. And he could also be given an assist on the play. He was streaking down the right side and made a beautiful centering pass to Nico Hischier atop the crease. His shot was stopped, but the rebound popped back to Meier below the circle. Meier tallied from a tough angle to tie the game late in the second period. A little Swiss connection on the play.
"Hischier did a great job driving to the net. I tried to get it to him as quick as possible," Meier said. "I tried to go back to the net. Luckily, it ended up back on my stick and I had an open net to put it in."
- The Lightning opened the scoring on a somewhat controversial play. The Devils iced the puck, but it appeared that forward Jesper Bratt had gotten an edge at the faceoff dot to negate the icing. The linesman didn't see it that way and called it an icing, thus a faceoff in the Devils end.
The Lightning won the ensuing faceoff and worked the puck back to Sergachev at the point. His shot went off the knee of Colton, the New Jersey native, and into the goal to give the Bolts a 1-0 lead just 69 seconds into the game.
- Tatar evened the game with his 16th goal of the season. But it was a made by a smart play by Dawson Mercer. The play started on a beautiful stretch pass from Dougie Hamilton from below the goal line to hit Mercer at center ice. The stretch pass broke the Tampa trap and New Jersey entered the zone with a 3-on-2. Mercer gained the blue line and dished to Nico Hischier. Mercer then drove to the net, which drew in the backchecking Bolts and opened up a passing lane behind him. Tatar smartly slowed his drive and stopped in that lane, where Hischier found him. Tatar finish with a pretty shot over the shoulder of Vasilevskiy.
- Mercer's assist was his 28th of the season and 50th point on the year.
- Both the Devils and Lightning came up with huge penalty kills, following by scoring goals with the ensuing momentum. New Jersey killed consecutive minors that came nearly in perfect sequence (there was 11 seconds between the calls). After the kill, Tatar scored.
The Devils then had two full minutes of a 5-on-3. The Lightning killed off all two minutes (Hughes did hit a post) and Stamkos scored 20 seconds after the penalties expired.
"It was frustrating," Hischier said about the failed 5-on-3.
- Yegor Sharangovich got himself back into the lineup after being a healthy scratch in the previous six contest. He did great work on the PK and even had a 2-on-1 chance (his shot was stopped). It's plays like that which will help Sharangovich stay in the lineup. He also added a shootout tally in the contest.
