Potent Lightning display depth, beat Devils 5-2 in Game 1
TAMPA, Fla. — Captain Steven Stamkos and high-scoring Nikita Kucherov garner lots of attention. However, the Tampa Bay Lightning are hardly a two-man show.
The top seed in the Eastern Conference got early goals from four players — none of them named Stamkos or Kucherov — before holding off the New Jersey Devils for a 5-2 victory Thursday night in Game 1 of the first-round series.
Ondrej Palat, Tyler Johnson and Yanni Gourde scored, helping the Lightning build a 3-0 lead that New Jersey trimmed to one goal before Alex Killorn and Kucherov, who added an empty-netter with 1:12 remaining, finished off the win before a crowd of 19,092.
“Not the outcome we wanted,” Devils goalie Keith Kinkaid said “That’s why it’s a series and not a game.”