Clarkson tricks Lightning with nifty shootout winner

October 31, 2009   ·   Hasan   ·   Jump to comments

While most people are trick-or-treating on a mild Saturday afternoon the Devils took a trip down to Tampa Bay hoping to maintain their perfect opening month on the road.  In a weird 3 PM start presumably to finish the game off in time for the kids to get their costumes and candy, the Devils and Lightning came together for their second interesting game in the Sunshine State this month.  And for the second straight time, the Devils triumphed over Tampa Bay in a shootout, with a wonderful David Clarkson goal on the Devils’ fourth attempt winning it after goals from Travis Zajac and Steven Stamkos in regulation led to a 1-1 tie after 65 minutes.

Seeing as I have my own party to go to later on tonight, I was napping earlier in the day expecting a long night and didn’t feel like getting out of bed till midway through the first period.  I did turn on the TV in time to see the action later in the period, which included a rare penalty shot – taken and missed by Jamie Langenbrunner as the puck trickled off his stick.  Near the end of the period a fight between Bryce Salvador and Steve Downie turned out to be incredibly one-sided, where Salvador took down Downie almost immediately after the Lightning winger objected to a hard hit along the boards.  Salvador’s fight actually mirrored the Devils’ dominance in the first two periods, where they outshot the Lightning 28-9 but only had one goal thanks to superb goaltending by Flyer castoff Antero Nittymaki and bad finishing, including a usually dreadful power play that went 0-4.

During those two periods, only Zajac beat Nittymaki on a goal 50 seconds after the puck dropped to start the second period, when a point shot by Mark Fraser rebounded to Zajac who did the rest corraling the puck and turning around to beat Nittymaki with a deke for his sixth goal of the year.  Although Martin Brodeur didn’t get much work in the first two periods, he looked on his way to a record-tying shutout especially with the way the Devils’ defense was playing.

Stamkos, in particular was a target for the Devils after his two goals in the teams’ first game in Tampa earlier this month.  Tampa’s young center didn’t even get a shot on net in the first two periods much to the surprising consternation of Devils broadcaster Chico Resch.  Half-kiddingly he begged Stamkos to get into the action more, after all we’d featured him on the pregame.  Oh Chico, be careful what you wish for since seconds later Stamkos would score his tenth of the year 4:34 into the third on a seemingly routine wrist shot that appeared to strike Salvador on its way in.  Did Chico’s jinx ruin Brodeur’s shutout?  It wouldn’t be the first time haha…but actually Lightning coach Rich Tocchet did put Martin St.Louis back on Stamkos’s line trying to create some offense in the third and it worked, as they got chances even after the goal but in a back-and-forth third period both teams couldn’t quite get the decider and after a relatively tame overtime came the shootout.

If Tocchet made a good move by putting St. Louis back with Stamkos in the third, for the second straight shootout against us he had a very questionable order, with defenseman Andrei Meszaros and checking forward Jeff Halpern as his two shooters before Stamkos, leaving out St. Louis and captain Vincent Lecavalier.  Maybe they’re not good in the shootout, but still it’s not like the Lightning are loaded with options, you gotta go down with your best.  Meszaros almost made the gamble pay off when he struck the inside of the post with his shot but Halpern missed wide and even Stamkos got stopped by Brodeur.

For his order, Jacques Lemaire went by the book for the first three shooters going with the entire ZZ Pops line - Zach Parise, Langenbrunner and Zajac but astonishingly all were stopped by Nittymaki, who almost certainly put up his best performance against the Devils after a career of questionable games in a Flyers uniform.  Tampa finally went with Lecavalier on the fourth shot, and he didn’t really look like he wanted any part of it being stopped easily by Brodeur.  For the Devils’ fourth selection came a bit of a surprise – Clarkson who does have nice moves and in this format showed he has the skills to use them, deking Nittymaki and beating him with a sweet backhand that he roofed for the only goal the Devils would need in this shootout.

Now 8-4 with seven straight wins on the road, the Devils are tied for second with three other teams in terms of consecutive road wins to open the season.  It turns out the record is ten, and was set just a couple years back by the Sabres.  New Jersey’s next three road games are at Ottawa on the 7th next month, at Pittsburgh on the 12th and at the Flyers on the 16th.  Probably a tall order to tie the record but of more immediate importance is doing better at home next week when the Devils take on the high-flying Caps Wednesday and the gritty but lowly Islanders on Friday.  Will Yann Danis play against his former team after his brilliant performance in Boston this week?  It seems likely he will get a game next weekend, either against the Isles or in Ottawa.

BoNY Three Stars:

1. Antero Nittymaki (37/38 saves)
2. Travis Zajac (goal, +1 in 23:47 of icetime)
3. Steven Stamkos (goal, +1 in 20:51 of icetime)