TAMPA, Fla. — The Devils were just seconds away from claiming a crucial victory last night, only to surrender a goal by the Lightning’s Alex Killorn with 15.1 seconds left in the third period and then drop the shootout as Tampa Bay recorded a 5-4 victory to give new coach Jon Cooper a victory in his NHL debut.
“How about that?” a smiling Cooper said. “The wave of emotions I had from when there’s 17 seconds left to 15 seconds left was unbelieveable. It’s almost like it happened in slow motion. It was awesome.”
Not so much for the Devils.
“It’s disappointing when you’re 15 seconds away from getting two [points], but at the same time we’ve got to put points in the bank and keep moving forward,” Devils coach Peter DeBoer said.
The Devils did manage a single point in the standings and remain in seventh place in the Eastern Conference, three points ahead of the eighth-place Rangers.
The Devils are is 2-6 in shootouts, including 0-3 with Martin Brodeur in goal.
“It’s unbelievable,” Brodeur said. “I haven’t practiced at all. I’ve got to bring myself to get out there and practice it more. I haven’t been playing much and we don’t practice a lot, but it’s something we have to start doing. These are tons of great points we’re laying out on the table. We have too much talent to let go of these kind of points.”
The Lightning pulled even at 4 when Killorn scored from the right circle. Teddy Purcell and Victor Hedman scored for Tampa Bay in the shootout.
Steven Stamkos scored his 24th and 25th goals this season and added an assist on Killorn’s goal. Nate Thompson had the other Tampa Bay goal.
“Made it exciting,” Stamkos said.
The Devils got goals from Andrei Loktionov, Tom Kostopoulos, Andy Greene and Ryan Carter. Martin Brodeur made 21 saves.
After blowing a two-goal lead, Greene’s power-play goal put the Devils up 3-2 with 6:02 left in the second. Carter’s short-handed goal made it 4-2 at 2:39 of the third.
Stamkos cut the Lightning deficit to 4-3 on his second goal of the game at 7:11 of the third.
The Devils took a 2-0 lead in the second when Loktionov (5:50) and Kostopoulos (6:41) scored 51 seconds apart. Kostopoulos stopped a personal 30-game goal drought, dating back to Feb. 25, 2012, against Philadelphia — when he beat Mathieu Garon on a penalty shot.
“I know Matty Garon pretty well, so I knew that’s where I wanted to go,” Kostopoulos said. “The puck kind of hopped on me, so I was getting a little nervous. I just wanted to try and get above his pad and below his blocker.”
Garon stopped 21 shots.
The Lightning tied it at 2 midway through the second on goals by Stamkos (8 minutes) and Thompson (10:26).
Stamkos scored when he swatted a waist-high rebound into the net after Brodeur made a strong save on the Lightning center. Thompson’s goal came after he got through two New Jersey defenders and had a rebound of his own shot go off his leg and past Brodeur.
Brodeur late in the second got a piece of Cory Conacher’s point-blank shot that also hit the post.
Cooper was hired as the eighth coach in Lightning history Monday, one day after the team announced the firing of Guy Boucher. Cooper had been coaching Syracuse of the AHL, Tampa Bay’s top minor league team.
“A huge win, especially for Coop, a new coach coming in,” said Killorn, who played for Cooper in the minors. “I think it just shows the confidence a lot of guys have in him. The swagger he has, we kind of all rallied behind him.”
NOTES: Tampa Bay improved to 2-17-1 when tied or trailing after the first period. … The Devils are 12-1-3 when scoring the game’s first goal. … New Jersey activated LW Alexei Ponikarovsky (lower body) from injured reserved. He sat out three games. … Devils D Bryce Salvador (lower body) and C Stephen Gionta (upper body), who were both hurt in Monday’s 3-2 shootout loss to Ottawa, played. … Lightning D Andrej Sustr made his NHL debut. … The Devils’ top minor league team, Albany of the AHL, signed LW Reid Boucher and D Jon Merrill to amateur tryout agreements.