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Two Wins Tucked Away: Mercer Powers Devils to Victory Ahead of Home Opener

  Photo: Andrew MacLean The New Jersey Devils survived a chaotic, late-game flurry in Columbus to secure their second straight victory on Monday night, defeating the Blue Jackets 3-2 to cap off their opening road trip. The star of the dramatic finish was forward Dawson Mercer, who netted a pair of goals—including the decisive empty-net marker—that momentarily gave the Devils a two-goal cushion before the Blue Jackets scored with 20 seconds left to keep the tension high until the final horn. Having collected four points out of a possible six on the road, New Jersey now turns its focus to the familiar roar of the Prudential Center crowd. The team finally heads home to Newark, where they will open their home slate on Thursday night with a pivotal early-season clash against the formidable Florida Panthers. New Jersey Devils Lineup: Palat - Hughes - Bratt Meier - Hischier - Mercer Gritsyuk - Glass - Brown Cotter - Glendening - Halonen Hughes - Pesce Siegenthaler - Hamilton Dillon - Neme...
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Guentzel Scores Lone Goal, Vatrano Scores Twice In 4-1 Victory

 

Photo via Tampa Bay Lightning





   The Lightning's downward spiral continued Sunday, January 5th, suffering a 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center. Jake Guentzel's goal provided a fleeting moment of brilliance, but it was ultimately a solitary spark in an otherwise dismal performance as Tampa Bay took their fourth straight loss. Frank Vatrano, who earlier in the day signed a three-year contract extension with Anaheim, fueled the Ducks' victory with a pair of goals, while John Gibson, a stalwart in the net, earned his 200th NHL career win, making 33 saves to guide the Ducks to victory. This has been the first time this season that the Lightning lost four straight games in regulation. On Tuesday, the Lightning will head home to host the Carolina Hurricanes in search of a win to snap their losing streak, while the Ducks hope to grab another two points when they host the Calgary Flames.


Lightning Lineup:

Guentzel - Point - Kucherov

Hagel - Cirelli - Geekie

Chaffee - Paul - Eyssimont

Girgensons - Glendening - Goncalves


Hedman - Raddysh

McDonagh - Cernak

Lilleberg - Perbix


Johansson

Vasilevskiy


Ducks Lineup:

Vatrano - Strome - Terry

Killorn - Carlsson - Leason

Gauthier - McTavish - Fabbri

Harkins - Lundestrom - Nesterenko


Dumoulin - Trouba

LaCombe - Gudas

Zellweger - Helleson


Gibson

Dostal


   Getting the party started, Troy Terry opened the scoring at 14:36 of the first period to put Anaheim ahead 1-0 with his 14th goal of the season. Terry took Ryan Strome's drop pass at the blue line, scoring on a wrister from the right circle after slowly skating to it, and it went in off Jonas Johansson's arm. The Lightning did not record their first shot on goal until 9:24 on the clock in the first frame. With little time left in the opening 20, Jacob Trouba fired the puck from above the left circle and Frank Vatrano tipped it in to find the back of the net, extending the Ducks' lead to 2-0 with 2:57 left to play in the first period.


   Jake Guentzel struck the one and only goal for Tampa Bay with 10:48 remaining in the middle frame to cut it to 2-1. After some passing back and forth, Guentzel sent the puck over to Nikita Kucherov, who moved down below the right circle before passing it back to Guentzel, who was originally behind the net. Guentzel then buried a one-timer for his 21st goal of the season after skating into the right circle on the power play.


   With 3:34 remaining in the third, Jackson LaCombe pushed it to 3-1 off Alex Killorn's pass as they both drove up into Tampa Bay's zone on a 2-on-1, and LaCombe found the back of the net with a one-timer for his eighth of the season. Frank Vatrano struck his second of the night with little time left in regulation when he scored on the Lightning's empty net for the 4-1 final.





Notes:

- Jonas Johansson made a total of 22 saves for Tampa Bay.

- Erik Cernak skated in his 400th NHL career game.

- Both Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point recorded the assists on Jake Guentzel's goal.

- The Lightning outshot the Anaheim Ducks 32-24 in the final two periods.

- The Lightning had won the eight previous games against the Anaheim Ducks.

- Tampa Bay was 1-for-1 on the penalty kill, and they haven't allowed a power-play goal in their past six games; 14-for-14.

- Troy Terry recorded a goal and picked up an assist, and Ryan Strome collected a pair of assists. ...With his two assists, Strome extended his point streak to five games; two goals and five assists.

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