Lightning take 2-0 lead over Devils

TAMPA, Fla. It’s great to play well, even better to win.

That’s how the Tampa Bay Lightning view a 2-0 series lead over the New Jersey Devils.

“As a coach, you care about everything. You’d like to say you played the perfect game, but somebody else has a vote out there,” coach Jon Cooper said Saturday after a 5-3 victory in Game 2 of the first-round matchup.

“When we wake up tomorrow, you look back and say: ‘OK, which parts of the game did we do well.’ And we’ll be able to look at a lot of that tape and say we did really well. And we’ll look at some and say that wasn’t so good,” Cooper added. “I’m pretty sure New Jersey is going to do the exact same thing. It’s the playoffs. There’s going to be battles, there’s going to be swings of momentum, but the big thing for me is who won the game.”

Alex Killorn scored twice during a four-goal second period, and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 18 shots in the final period to hold off the pesky Devils. “We did bend a little bit in the third but didn’t break, so it’s a good feeling to be up 20,” Lightning defenceman Victor Hedman said. “You’ve got to win the game. That’s the bottom line.”