Point brings thunder for Lightning
TAMPA, Fla. — Brayden Point and the Tampa Bay Lightning had a big-time response after a lopsided loss at Arizona over the weekend.
Point had a career-high five points with a goal and four assists, defenceman Braydon Coburn scored twice, and the Lightning rallied from an early two-goal deficit to beat the New Jersey Devils 8-3 on Tuesday night.
“We controlled the majority of the play,” Lightning star Steven Stamkos said.
Point has seven goals and seven assists in 11 games this season.
“He’s a real tenacious player,” Devils coach John Hynes said. “He’s extremely competitive. He’s a high-skilled player that plays the game the right way all the time. He’s a difficult player to play against.”
Stamkos got his 350th career goal and added two assists for Tampa Bay, which was coming off a 3-1-1 trip that included a 7-1 loss in Arizona on Saturday.
“It’s always nice when you get an accomplishment like that,” Stamkos said.
Nikita Kucherov had two goals and an assist, and Tyler Johnson and Ryan McDonagh had the other Lightning goals. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 27 saves.
Kucherov left with six minutes left in the second after taking a shot near the inside of his left knee but returned early in the third.
Miles Wood, Travis Zajac and Kyle Palmieri scored for the Devils, who started a seven-game trip. Keith Kinkaid stopped 31 of 38 shots before being replaced five minutes into the third by Cory Schneider, who allowed a goal on six shots in his first game after off-season hip surgery.
Point scored 31 seconds into the second as Tampa Bay went up 3-2. Kucherov and Stamkos added power-play goals later in the period that made it 5-2.
“The game just slipped away,” New Jersey centre Nico Hischier said. “We didn’t play our game. We stopped forechecking, we stopped hitting them.”
Tampa Bay’s penalty kill had not allowed a goal in 24 chances at home before Palmieri got his ninth goal, which cut the deficit to 5-3 on the Devils’ second power play late in the second. Taylor Hall assisted and extended his point streak to eight games (10 assists, 12 points).