New Lightning head coach Jon Cooper was behind the bench for the first time Friday night against the New Jersey Devils and the intensity showed throughout their 5-4 victory.
Trailing 4-2 in the third period, the Bolts continued to apply pressure on New Jersey. Steven Stamkos scored his second goal of the night to bring the Lightning to within one. But his pass across the ice to Alex Killorn with :15.1 seconds left allowed Killorn to one-time it into the open net to send the game into overtime.
It would go into a shootout where New Jersey could not beat Mathieu Garon. But Teddy Purcell and Victor Hedman beat the Devils’ Martin Brodeur to give Cooper his first win as NHL coach in his debut.
“We were ringing pucks off posts and we just kept getting better as the game went on…It was a lot of fun,” Cooper said after the game. “I am going to remember this for a long, long time.”
NOTES
Steven Stamkos scored his league-leading 24th and 25th goal and added an assist, earning first star honors.
Stamkos is on pace to score 35 goals this season and would be on pace for 60 goals in an 82-game schedule.
Martin St. Louis has now registered a point in 13 of the last 15 games with an assist on Stamkos’ second period tally.
The Lightning have now won four straight games at the Tampa Bay Times Forum and have sold out all 18 home games this season.
