TAMPA, Fla. — Valtteri Filppula scored the go-ahead goal on a nifty redirection early in the third period and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the New Jersey Devils 3-2 on Saturday night.
Steven Stamkos and Alex Killorn also scored for the Lightning, who have opened the season with two comeback wins after trailing by two early on in both games.
The Devils got goals from Kyle Palmieri and Travis Zajac. New Jersey lost its season opener 2-1 in overtime Thursday night at Florida.
Filppula was positioned in the slot and had his thigh-high deflection of Jason Garrison’s shot elude Cory Schneider at 5:43. Rookie Brayden Point also assisted on the goal to get his first NHL point.
Stamkos, on an in-close redirection, and Killorn scored 2:14 apart midway through the second to tie it at 2. Stamkos has 16 goals and 27 points in 26 games against New Jersey.
The Devils had what looked like a tiebreaking goal by Andy Greene with 4:27 left in the second disallowed after a video review following a Tampa Bay challenge determined New Jersey’s Michael Cammalleri was offside on the play.
Schneider had Nikita Kucherov’s backhander trickle past him in the opening minute of the third but teammate Ben Lovejoy kept the puck from crossing the goal line. The no-goal call was confirmed following a video review.
After Palmieri scored 52 seconds into the first, Zajac made it 2-0 at 4:26 when his left circle shot went off Tampa Bay defenceman Anton Stralman and past goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy.
The Lightning trailed 2-0 8 1/2 minutes into Thursday night’s 6-4 season-opening win over Detroit.
NOTES: New Jersey and Tampa Bay play all three games of the season series in a 22-day span. … Tampa Bay D Braydon Coburn played in his 700th NHL game. … The Lightning outscored New Jersey 11-3 in winning all three games against the Devils last season.
