Valtteri Filppula lifts Lightning to victory

TAMPA --Valtteri Filppula scored the go-ahead goal in the third period, and the Tampa Bay Lightning rallied for a 3-2 win against the New Jersey Devils at Amalie Arena on Saturday.
Filppula redirected a high shot from defenseman Jason Garrison that bounced between the pads of goalie Cory Schneider at 5:43.

"Just trying to get a little piece of it, make it a little tougher for the goalie," Filppula said. "Obviously, those kind of goals need a little luck to go in, but I'm glad it did."
Steven Stamkos and Alex Killorn also scored for the Lightning, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 32 saves in his first start of the season.
New Jersey jumped out to a 2-0 lead on first-period goals from Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac.
Palmieri scored 52 seconds into the game when he got a piece of John Moore's slap shot from the left point, beating Vasilevskiy on the far post.

Zajac made it 2-0 at 4:26 when his shot from the left circle deflected off Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman's stick and went between Vasilevskiy's pads. PA Parenteau got the assist.
"It wasn't a good first period," Vasilevskiy said. "Two bad bounces and two goals, but we did a good job to get back in the game and scored some important goals."
Stamkos scored at 7:53 of the second period to get Tampa Bay within a goal. Ondrej Palat faked a shot at the left circle and put a pass on Stamkos' stick for the tip-in past Schneider.
Killorn tied it 2-2 at 10:07 of the second with a wrist shot through Schneider's five-hole. It appeared the Devils regained the lead at 15:33 of the period on a goal by Andy Greene, but it was determined by video review after a challenge by Lightning coach Jon Cooper that Michael Cammalleri was offside prior to the goal.
"When it happened live, I had no idea," Greene said. "You know, it happens. It was the right call, and you just move on. There's nothing you can do about it."
Schneider made 31 saves.
"It was right there for us and it could have gone either way," said Schneider, who had 32 saves in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Florida Panthers on Thursday. "It's disappointing … it's not good enough to only get one point on this trip when we felt we could've have had three or four."

Goal of the game

Stamkos' first goal of the season was a thing of beauty set up by Ondrej Palat's perfect pass from the left circle after he faked a shot to create a passing lane. Jonathan Drouin, who got the second assist, fought his way through a couple of checks near the blue line to carry the puck into the zone. "Those were pretty impressive plays to set me up there," Stamkos said. "And I just did the easy part."

Save of the game

Schneider made several tough saves, but none was better than his stop on Vladislav Namestnikov on a breakaway at 15:45 of the second period to keep it tied 2-2.

Unsung moment of the game

On Killorn's goal, defenseman Andrej Sustr did a nice job of driving the net, giving Killorn plenty of room to gather the puck after Nikita Kucherov's shot was blocked.

Highlight of the game

Vasilevskiy made a great save on Beau Bennett during a 2-on-1 at 2:02 of the first period. Defenseman Kyle Quincey placed a soft pass on Bennett's stick, and the forward seemed to have plenty of open net to score, but Vasilevskiy contorted his body around to make the toe save. "Just a lucky save," Vasilevskiy said. "Nothing crazy."

They said it

"[Stamkos] is a great offensive player. He read the rush well and went to the net, but, you know, it's not just him. Like I said this morning, they have six or seven guys who have their heads up and can make those plays. Palat made a great play and somehow threaded the needle, so you know they have a real dangerous group of forwards." -- Devils goalie Cory Schneider on the Lightning forwards
"We don't want to make a habit of that, but it's a good quality to have when you do get into that situation. So, we have to start games a little better. I know we're confident in our ability to create offense, but [you] can't count on having our goaltender make some big saves to keep it within reach. So, we'll obviously look to improve in trying to start the game on time." -- Lightning forward Steven Stamkos on trailing 2-0 in back-to-back games

Need to know

Brayden Point got the second assist on Filppula's goal for his first NHL point. …Zajac's goal was his 142nd with the Devils, tying him with Claude Lemieux and Jamie Langenbrunner for 13th in New Jersey history. … Garrison's assist on Filppula's goal was the 150th of his NHL career.

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What's next

Devils: Home against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; MSG, PRIME, NHL.TV)
Lightning: Home against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday (7:30 p.m. ET; SUN, FS-F, NHL.TV)