Lightning score five straight, rally past Devils

NEWARK, N.J. -- The Tampa Bay Lightning scored five straight goals in a 6-3 win against the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center on Tuesday.

Victor Hedman gave the Lightning a 4-3 lead at 7:17 of the third period on a slap shot from the top of the left face-off circle.
"It wasn't a typical game from [Hedman] because he had four giveaways, but he ends up with two points, is a plus-4 and gets the game-winner," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "That's what great players can do. When they're maybe not having the game they'd like, they can elevate and do what's needed to help the team win, and that's what Vic did."
Hedman, Nikita Kucherov, Pat Maroon and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare each had a goal and an assist for the Lightning (32-11-6), who have won nine of their past 12. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves, including nine in the third, when he did not allow a goal.
"If you want to have a chance to win in this league, you've got to keep the opponent to two (goals) or under, so I'd say you're playing with fire (allowing three goals)," Cooper said. "It's a hard league to score in, and we kind of caught fire at end of the second and to start of the third. The boys found a way, and [Vasilevskiy] shut the door after allowing that third one, which was big."

Dawson Mercer had a goal and two assists, and Jack Hughes had a goal and an assist for the Devils (17-28-5). Jon Gillies made 24 saves on 30 shots in 50:21 before being replaced by Nico Daws (two saves).
"They've won back-to-back Stanley Cup championships and were going to be a lot better than they were to start the game," New Jersey defenseman Damon Severson said. "I don't know what happened there in the last 20 minutes. We were fully in control, 3-1, and just let it go."
Mercer gave the Devils a 1-0 lead at 8:27 of the first period. After Mercer chipped the puck into the right face-off circle, Lightning defenseman Erik Cernak appeared to have control of it before Hughes hit Cernak's stick, forcing the puck just inside the right post.
Maroon tied it 1-1 38 seconds later at 9:05 on a snap shot from the slot after a scramble in front.
Yegor Sharangovich gave New Jersey a 2-1 lead at 19:04 with a power-play goal from the left circle.
Hughes extended the lead to 3-1 1:48 into the second period on his own rebound from in close.

Cooper began tinkering with his line combinations at that point, moving center Steven Stamkos to left wing with center Brayden Point and Kucherov on the top line and placing left wing Ondrej Palat on the second unit with center Ross Colton and Mathieu Joseph.
"When you see your coach change in the lines, it's maybe a little bit of a wake-up call and sometimes it's just nice to get some different looks," Tampa Bay forward Alex Killorn said. "As we saw tonight, we scored pretty quickly once those lines got changed, so it was nice."
The only line to remain intact was Bellemare at center with left wing Maroon and Corey Perry (two assists). They combined for six points (two goals, four assists).
"They're three veteran players," Cooper said. "They've been in this league and know how to navigate their way around there."
Stamkos pulled the Lightning within 3-2 at 15:32.

Killorn, who was with center Anthony Cirelli and Taylor Raddysh, made it 3-3 at 16:13 on a deflection from the slot.
Tampa Bay then scored three goals in a span of 3:04 of the third.
"I felt like we just kind of gave up once they tied the game," Devils forward Tomas Tatar said. "We were not playing the same way as we did in the first half of the game."
After Hedman's goal, Kucherov scored on a breakaway at 9:14 for a 5-3 lead, and Bellemare made it 6-3 at 10:21, resulting in Gillies being pulled.
"We had to get a kick in the butt and finally we woke up," Bellemare said, "but I would put that one in the unacceptable category."
NOTES: The Lightning have four multigoal comeback wins this season, third-most in the NHL behind the Minnesota Wild (six) and Columbus Blue Jackets (five). ... Hedman, who played a game-high 24:30, leads NHL defensemen with 50 points (11 goals, 39 assists). ... Cernak had three shots on goal and five hits in 18:44 after missing nine games with a lower-body injury. ... Tampa Bay has eight days until its next game, against the Edmonton Oilers on Feb. 23; New Jersey's next game is in nine days, at the Pittsburgh Penguins on Feb. 24. ... It was the first three-point game and seventh multipoint game of Mercer's NHL career. He has played 50 games, all this season.