The New Jersey Devils headed to Amalie Arena to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in what was the Devils’ third straight contest in the state of Florida. This time, it didn’t go as well as the first two, getting blanked 4-0.
The first period started pretty slow with sprinkled chances going both ways. After around the 10-minute mark, the Devils flattened out and Tampa Bay took advantage with a Nick Paul goal. Jacob Markstrom did enough to keep them afloat, though, especially in the dying minutes with a couple of high-danger stops.
In the second, the Lightning continued to turn up the pace, but Markstrom was up for the challenge. He made more big saves, including going post-to-post for a save that certainly belongs on the highlight reel.
Looks like our guy’s glove works just fine against a Paul. pic.twitter.com/OyrGHgWVv1
— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) November 17, 2024
Then the Devils turned it up for the latter half of the frame, but it became the Andrei Vasilevskiy show. At the second horn, Markstrom had stopped 0.96 goals above expected; Vasilevskiy 0.97. (via MoneyPuck)
Just 39 seconds into the third, Darren Raddysh broke through with a massive insurance goal to make it 2-0 for the Lightning. Then Kurtis MacDermid took a tripping penalty and Victor Hedman made it 3-0. The Devils couldn’t get anything going the rest of the way, and Anthony Cirelli scored an empty netter to seal it. Vasilevskiy capped off a 29-save shutout for his second of the season.
The Devils are now 3-10-3 against the Lightning following their playoff series in 2018. They’ve been shut out in three of their last eight contests, continuing a theme where their offense is near non-existent on certain nights. They now have their longest break of the young season. They’ll take on the Carolina Hurricanes at home on Thursday, Nov. 21. Meanwhile, the Lightning host the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday, Nov. 19.
