Devils begin three-game road trip with 4-3 OT loss to Lightning
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Darren Raddysh scored 1:52 into overtime and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Devils 4-3 on Thursday night.
The defenseman got the game-winner from the left circle. NHL scoring leader Nikita Kucherov got his second assist on the goal, giving him 69 points this season.
Luke Glendening had two goals, and Brayden Point also scored for the Lightning. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves.
Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper tied Pat Burns for 27th place in NHL history with his 501st win.
New Jersey got goals from Dawson Mercer, Jesper Bratt and Nathan Bastian. Vitek Vanecek stopped 16 shots.
Bastian stopped a 22-game goal drought and tied it at 3 early in the third on a breakaway. A potential go-ahead goal just more than two minutes later by Michael McLeod was overturned after a replay review determined the Devils were offside.
The Devils scored first for just the 12th time this season when Mercer banked a shot off Vasilevskiy 7:42 into the game.
Glendening had a waist-high deflection five minutes later and then got Tampa Bay’s first short-handed goal after Devils defenseman Luke Hughes stumbled and lost the puck with 1:38 left in the first.
Point and Bratt traded second-period goals.
The Devils are without centre Jack Hughes, defensemen Dougie Hamilton and Jonas Siegenthaler, and wingers Ondrej Palat, Timo Meier and Tomas Nosek.
Tampa Bay defenseman Calvin de Haan left late in the first after being hit by Mercer’s shot in the mouth but returned in the second. Defensman Erik Cernak also departed in the first after being checked into the boards and didn’t return due an upper-body injury.
UP NEXT
Devils: Will play Saturday night at Florida.
Lightning: Will host Anaheim on Saturday night.
