Lightning 4, Devils 2
NEWARK, N.J. -- Jonathan Drouin scored his first NHL goal in 127 days to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 4-2 win over the New Jersey Devils at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., Thursday night.
Erik Condra, Cedric Paquette and Valtteri Filppula scored for Tampa Bay (46-30-5), while Ben Bishop stopped 20 of 22 shots.
The win over New Jersey (37-36-8) allowed the Lightning to clinch second place in the Atlantic Division. It also allowed Tampa Bay to snap a two-game losing skid. Overall, the Lightning have lost three of their last five with one game left in their regular season.
Keith Kinkaid made 18 saves and Sergey Kalinin scored both of the Devils goals. New Jersey has lost four straight, and has one game remaining in its 2015-16 season.
The Lightning struck early as Condra recorded his sixth of the season just 5:46 into the game.
Condra's goal highlighted an opening period in which Tampa Bay outshot New Jersey 10-3 and went into the intermission with a 1-0 lead. After New Jersey recorded the game's first three shots in the opening 1:11, Tampa Bay dominated play for the remainder of the period. All three Devils shots occurred when Andrej Sustr served a hooking minor beginning at 37 seconds.
New Jersey recorded its first five even strength shots on goal for the game four minutes in the second, the most dangerous being Bobby Farnham's breakaway which forced Bishop to make a pad save.
The Devils' attack paid dividends when Kalinin drew New Jersey even with his seventh goal of the season at 7:16. Kalinin's goal was the culmination of a sequence which began with Stephen Gionta winning an offensive zone faceoff back to John Moore, who fired a shot that Kalinin tipped.
The tie lasted for all of seven minutes and 16 seconds.
Tampa Bay regained the lead after Paquette scored his sixth of the season at 14:45. Paquette's goal finished a sequence in which Filppula carried the puck from the neutral zone and into the offensive zone before finding his linemate with a cross ice feed for a quick snap shot.
Drouin put the game away 3:50 into the third with his third goal of the season. The goal, a slap shot from the right wing, was his first goal since a 2-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Dec. 2.
Kalinin's second of the game at 9:26 cut the deficit to 3-2. But Filppula's empty netter with 47 seconds left ended the scoring.
The announced attendance was 15,536.
NOTES: Prior to the game, Tampa Bay announced LW Jonathan Drouin and D Matt Taormina had been called up from Syracuse of the American Hockey League. The Lightning also announced D Slater Koekkoek had been sent down to Syracuse. Drouin has split time between Tampa Bay and Syracuse this season. He has eight points (two goals and six assists) in 19 games with the Lightning, and 11 goals and 13 points in 17 games with Syracuse. Drouin became the focus of trade speculation earlier this season when his agent, Allan Walsh, publicly stated the 21-year old requested a trade from the team which selected him third overall in the 2013 draft. In 89 NHL games entering Thursday, Drouin has six goals and 34 assists for 40 points. ... Lightning D Anton Stralman, D Victor Hedman, F Ryan Callahan, F Steven Stamkos missed the game due to injury and illness. ... Tampa Bay scratched C Jonathan Marchessault. ... The Devils scratched D Jon Merrill, D David Warsofsky, LW Tuomo Ruutu and LW Blake Pietila. ... New Jersey RW Jordin Tootoo missed the game due to injury.