Devils Struck by Lightning in 4-1 Loss | GAME STORY

NEWARK, NJ - The Devils battled but the bounces went the way of the visitors as they fell 4-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday afternoon. Tyler Toffoli scored the lone goal for New Jersey, on the power play.

"I thought the first 40 was a pretty even match and I thought the third period, their energy totally exceeded ours," said Devils head coach Lindy Ruff. "The back-to-back power plays let us down. It just took the energy out of the team."

Devils had two power play chances early in the third. Tyler Motte was called for interference followed three minutes after by Emil Martinsen Lilleberg getting called for delay of game - puck over glass. The club was unable to capitalize, however.

"You've got to give them credit," Ruff continued. "They were on top of us in a lot of situations. But execution, getting up ice is probably what hurt us. If you look at the first 40, there wasn't a lot of opportunities going either way. We earned a couple of power plays and we could have got the energy."

Tyler Toffoli agreed with his coach. 

"We had our looks, our opportunities. We didn't cash in when we needed to," Toffoli noted. "I thought our power play had some good looks and some good opportunities. Had a chance to get us right back in and we didn't do that in the third."

Ruff talked about the decisions the team made at times during the game. 

"You saw a power play that got almost a minute-and-a-half. We had one last play, we got them tired, they can't get off the ice and we make an ill-advised pass. I thought leaving our zone, the passing was the biggest issue in the game tonight. Our D moving the puck to the forwards wasn't crisp. When you're connected and moving up ice that's when you have a chance to create offense," he added. 

Midway through the third, Brandon Hagel found a loose puck in the slot and chipped it by Schmid to extend the Lightning's lead to 3-1.

Kucherov added an empty netter at the end to ice the outcome.

"They play well defensively. They've won, they're champions. They know what to do and how to win games. They did a better job of playing the game today than we did," Toffoli said. "We have to do a better job of recovering pucks and keep getting after it. That's playoff-style hockey. They're a team that has won and been through it. They know how to win. We struggled with that tonight and couldn't find a way."

Ruff also talked about the team not directing pucks to the net as often as they should, passing the puck back at times when the better play would have been directing it on goal. The team only managed three shots in the third period and 19 in the game. In all, Lightning had 25 blocked shots. 

"You've got to find a way to get around some of those blocked shots. Some of it is lanes, moving, getting to a lane a little bit quicker," said Ruff. "By the end of the night that all caught up to us."

Final shot count in the game was 28-19 for the Bolts. Akira Schmid turned away 24 of the 27 shots he faced in his first NHL start since December 21 at home against Edmonton. 

"I didn't feel too rusty. I felt pretty good," said Schmid. "I got a lot of practice in that time. I got time to work on thing and really focused on working on some of the details we've been talking about."

The two teams traded power play chances early in the game. Alex Holtz was called for tripping five minutes in and 90 seconds into that Lightning power play, Nick Paul received two for interference. Neither team was able to score or generate a ton on those early man advantages.

The Bolts also had a power play late in the period after Luke Hughes cleared the puck over the glass from his own end and could not convert.

Shots on goal after one were 9-6 for Tampa Bay.

Ninety seconds into the second period, the Lightning struck for the game's first goal. Nikita Kucherov cut down the middle of the Devils zone, drew defenders over before dishing it to Victor Hedman. Hedman put the puck into the open cage for the goal.

Tampa Bay extended its lead to 2-0 less than three minutes later. Brayden Point's deke went in off the pad of Akira Schmid inside the post.

With Stamkos in the box, Devils got a goal back less than two minutes after Tampa Bay's second marker. Tyler Toffoli netted the power play marker to make it a one-goal game.

Playing in his first NHL game, Brian Halonen nearly tied it about 14 minutes into the second. Tomas Nosek threaded a pass to him on a two-on-one and his redirection went just over the net.

After two shots on goal were 19-16 for the Lightning.

Here are some observations from the game:

• The Devils went with a number of lineup changes in order to get some fresh legs on the ice. Chris Tierney and Brendan Smith were scratched with Tomas Nosek and Brian Halonen drawing in. For Halonen, he was making his NHL debut.

"It was very special skating out there for the warmups, taking it in and once the game starts you try to calm the nerves and do whatever you can to try and play your game, what got you here. Try to keep it simple," said Halonen. "It's an elevated state, the NHL. First shift you want to just get the puck in. My game is pretty meat and potatoes. Don't do anything out of your skill set, just try to keep it simple."

He also was able to share a moment with his wife and daughter during warm-ups. 

"That was special," he said. "My daughter's a little too young to realize what's going on but it's nice for my wife and me to share that moment with our daughter."

• Timo Meier found his way onto the top line, which is where he finished Saturday's game. Forward lines were:

Meier - Hischier - Bratt
Toffoli - Hughes - Mercer
Palat - Haula - Lazar
Holtz - Nosek - Halonen

• Victor Hedman was a beast for the Bolts, scoring a goal and adding an assist, +4 rating and eating 25:47 of ice time.

• Nikita Kucherov had a goal and three assists with a +4 rating to push past the 100-point barrier on the season -- the first player in the NHL this season to do so. He now has 102 points on the campaign.