Brown Powers Devils to First Win of Season | GAME STORY

TAMPA, FL - Nico Hischier, Timo Meier and Luke Hughes combined for six points in the opening period against the Tampa Bay Lightning, and it was an opening three-goal performance that would prove crucial as the game carried on.

Backed by two goals from Connor Brown, New Jersey earned its first win of the season with a 5-3 victory against the Lightning in Tampa.

“It’s nice to contribute early in the season and get it out of the way” Brown said. “I thought it was two great plays by Gritsy, I thought we had some great chemistry with him and Glasser. It was a fun night.”

Meier opened the scoring for New Jersey by pouncing on a loose puck during a scramble in front of Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy. Connor Brown added another goal, finishing off a pass from Arseny Gritsyuk, and Nico Hischier capped off the period with a successful wraparound. The Devils took a 3-0 lead over Tampa Bay after the first 20 minutes.

In the second, the Lightning worked their way back with goals from Yanni Gourde and Ryan McDonagh to make it a one-goal game heading into the third.

The Devils' power play had gone 0-for-4 leading up to the third period. Still, it was the penalty kill that provided the special teams offense for the Devils, with Jesper Bratt picking up a shorthanded goal early in the third while Jonas Siegenthaler sat in the box for a trip. The goal was Bratt’s fourth career shorthanded goal and first of the season. Brown added a second goal, the Devils' fifth against Tampa, assisted by Arseny Gritsyuk for a second time, who has earned his first two points in the NHL.

“The second period I think we did some good things, they made a push and then in the third we took over again and at the end, an unbelievable effort by everybody there to keep the puck out of the net. Taking everything it took, just really awesome to see.”

Darren Raddysh added a late Lightning goal to cut New Jersey's lead to 5-3. It was a bit of a chaotic finish with less than two minutes to play and Jacob Markstrom sending the puck over the glass. But the penalty kill came up with a massive kill, with the Lightning putting out six players with Vasilevskiy pulled for the extra attacker.

"I don’t love that we had to kill one at the end and hold on like that but just to see the effort, the determination, the will of our guys to keep the puck out of our net to the end, blocking shots and diving around," head coach Sheldon Keefe said. "This is game two of the regular season, and to see that type of commitment bodes well for us to build something here.”

Here are some observations from the game:

• Luke Hughes has started his season on an offensive tear with four points, all assists, in the opening two games.

• It was a goal of firsts: Connor Brown scored his first goal as a Devil, and Arseny Gritsyuk recorded his first NHL point with the primary assist. Brown finished an unbelievable play by Gritsyuk, who carried the puck from the defensive to the offensive zone right up to the hashmarks, uncontested, before saucering a tape-to-tape pass to Brown cutting through the slot for the finish.

• New Jersey was playing without forward Evgenii Dadonov, who has a fracture in his hand after blocking a shot in the season opener in Carolina. Dadonov will miss the remainder of the trip, with one more stop in Columbus, and will be evaluated once the team returns to Jersey.

Without Dadonov, Zack MacEwen made his entrance into the Devils' lineup. He lined up on the fourth line with Paul Cotter and Luke Glendening, bumping up Arseny Gritsyuk to the third line with Cody Glass and Connor Brown, while Ondrej Palat assumed his spot on the top line with Jack Hughes and Jesper Bratt.

• The Devils limited the Lightning to just two shots on goal in the first period, with the second coming only 25 seconds before the buzzer. Although Tampa Bay controlled play early, New Jersey quickly found its rhythm and dominated the rest of the period. By the end of the first, the Devils led 3-0 and held a 16-2 edge in shots.

• The power play went 0-for-4 against the Lightning but the penalty came up big going 3-for-3 and providing a shorthanded goal by Jesper Bratt.

"I thought we swallowed them up pretty good and that’s not an easy task," Keefe said. "I thought (Brad Shaw) had a great plan for the guys today and they went out and worked and executed and that can be a tough task going against that power play. They’ve been so good for so long. They really test you and our guys weren’t having it today. It was really good to see that as part of what I thought was a pretty complete game.”

• Gritsyuk earned the first two points of his NHL career, dishing out two primary assists to Brown.

“He gave me puck," Gritsyuk laughed when asked what he liked about playing with Brown. "He always talk with me on the ice when I (don’t) see him on the ice. He says ‘With you, with you, back, right’ and he does hard work and goes pressure with me. And Glasser reads the situation and support me in our zone. He’s a good skater.”