Ben Bishop makes 37 saves in Lightning win

TAMPA -- Ben Bishop made 37 saves and Nikita Kucherov scored to help the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 4-1 win against the New Jersey Devils at Amalie Arena on Saturday.
Brayden Point, Brian Boyle and Victor Hedman also had goals for the Lightning (7-4-1).
Damon Severson scored and Cory Schneider made 31 saves for the Devils (4-3-3).

WATCH: All Devils vs. Lightning highlights
Hedman gave the Lightning a 2-1 lead at 8:27 of the second period when he beat Schneider with a slap shot from the center point.
"I think I played a terrible first period and I wanted to be better and it was good to come out and have that start in the second," Hedman said. "We put on a great performance in the second period with over 20 shots and that says a lot about our character."
Point made it 3-1 at 5:01 of the third period with his first NHL goal on the power play off a redirection of Kucherov's slap shot that beat Schneider over his shoulder on the stick side.
"It was a lucky one, it just hit my stick and bounced in but I'll take it for sure," Point said. "Obviously it was a kind of a long time (12 games) coming but it feels good and it's kind of a relief to get it over with."

Kucherov gave the Lightning a 4-1 lead with his fourth goal of the season at 14:14 of the third.
Severson gave the Devils a 1-0 lead at 14:39 of the first with his second goal of the season. Bishop tried to clear the puck out from the front of the net but Severson recovered it and beat him top shelf with a slap shot.
Boyle tied the game 1-1 at 2:25 of the second period finding the open net before Schneider could slide over and recover. Hedman set Boyle up in the right circle with a cross-ice pass that took Schneider out of position.
"We can't keep taking ten minutes worth of penalties every night and our special teams weren't special," Devils defenseman Ben Lovejoy said. "We need to be better [Sunday]."

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Goal of the game

Kucherov's goal started with an outlet pass from Steven Stamkos and then he outskated Devils defensemen John Moore and Kyle Quincey to get a clear angle to the goal where he beat Schneider with a backhand shot under his glove.

Save of the game

Bishop made back-to-back saves on Moore and Nick Lappin during a 3-on-2 sequence at 12:05 of the third period. First he stopped Moore's wrist shot from the left circle and scrambled to turn away Lappin's follow-up attempt from the right side.

Unsung Moment of the game

Kucherov appeared to give the Lightning a 2-1 lead at 8:22 of the second period when he beat Schneider with a backhand shot but the puck hit the corner of the post and bounced off the red line where Schneider was able to clear it. Five seconds later Hedman got the game-winning goal.

Highlight of the game

Point's first goal caused quite a celebration on the Lightning bench, especially after he came close with a spinning wrist shot earlier in the third period. The rookie was greeted with a big smile from Hedman after the score.
"You talk about someone that deserved a goal, nobody deserved one more than him," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "Hopefully this just opens the flood gates for him because he's been ironclad for us."

They said it

"As soon as we start playing our game -- play fast defensively and transition from defensive to offense -- it builds confidence and every line just picks it up." -- Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov
"We pushed in the third, we had some looks. Bishop played real well, made some good saves so we were never really able to get it back to one. And the fourth goal was a back breaker. We have to have better second periods. That's somewhere we can get better at. After one good period we have to try to follow it out with another good period." -- Devils goalie Cory Schneider

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Need to know

Lightning defenseman Anton Stralman had to go to the locker room in the first period after being checked into the boards by Devils forward Taylor Hall. He returned in the second period and finished with an assist and was plus-2 in 17:57 ice time. …Hall got his 199th NHL assist in the first period.

What's next

Devils: At the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday (6 p.m. ET; FS-CR, MSG +, NHL.TV)
Lightning: At the Florida Panthers on Monday (7:30 p.m. ET; SUN, FS-F, NHL.TV)