Devils earn shootout victory over Lightning

The New Jersey Devils were all but written off when Hall of Fame goalie Martin Broduer went down in November with a bicep tear.  Instead, they’re doing what good teams are supposed to do—finding ways to win, night after night.  They’ve also gotten stellar goaltending from their backups, including veteran Kevin Weekes who won his fifth straight start as New Jersey nipped the Tampa Bay Lighting 3-2 in shootout decision.

Tampa Bay has been the polar opposite of New Jersey, as they’ve constantly found ways to lose close games this season.  The Lightning are 7-22 in games decided by one goal this season, which goes a long way to explain their substandard 19-27-12 mark.  New Jersey, meanwhile, has been nothing if not opportunistic—the Lightning have won 10 of their last 11 OT games. 

Tampa Bay shot out to a 2-0 lead after one period on a pair of goals by Ryan Malone.  Martin St. Louis and Vincent Lecavalier assisted on the first, with Lecavalier and Matt Smaby getting the setups on the second tally.  The Devils then used a single power play goal in each of the remaining periods to send the contest to overtime.  Brian Rolston scored from David Clarkson and Dainus Zubrus in the second, with Zach Parise knotting the score assisted by Travis Zajac, Jamie Langenbrunner early in the third.   After a scoreless overtime session, the Devils managed to prevail in the shootout for the victory.

Weekes stopped 39 of 41 Tampa shots in the victory.  His Lightning counterpart, Karri Ramo, also played well stopping 38 of 40 shots in a losing effort.  Devils coach Brent Sutter praised his team for responding well after their slow first period, singling out his goaltender:

"I thought especially the last two periods we really started creating some things offensively. And after the second goal, Weeksey played extremely well."

Lightning interim coach Rick Tocchet put his team on notice that despite their dismal record that anything less than 100% effort would not be tolerated:

"As a coaching staff, we have to be careful because if we see guys packing it in, then they won't be in the lineup. We have to go with people who are willing to stick to the system and want to play, and that's our job to make sure that happens."