Lightning Avoid Letdown in Game 1 against Devils

The Tampa Bay Lightning got off to a fast start in game one against the New Jersey Devils, but then they took their foot off the gas pedal a little bit. When it reached under 10 minutes to go in regulation, Tampa Bay turned on the gas again and pulled away to a 5-2 win over New Jersey.

Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson scored in the first-period for the Lightning. Yanni Gourde scored a power-play goal for Tampa Bay 1:54 into the second period.

Taylor Hall scored the lone goal for New Jersey in the second period. Travis Zajac scored a power-play goal for the Devils in the third-period to cut the lead to one with 10:25 remaining in regulation.

Alex Killorn scored later in the third for the Lightning. Nikita Kucherov scored an empty-net goal with 1:12 left in regulation. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 29 saves for Tampa Bay. Keith Kinkaid made 27 saves for the Devils. Game 2 is on Saturday Afternoon in Tampa Bay.