NEWARK, N.J. _ Taylor Hall, the Devils' potential Hart Trophy hero, looked absolutely heroic on Monday night with a top-shelf toe-drag goal that will be played on every Stanley Cup Playoff promo from now until the Cup is hoisted.
Hall had a three-point night and his second-period goal tied Game 3 of the Devils' Eastern Conference quarterfinal against the Tampa Bay Lightning at 1-1 and Cory Schneider had a resurgent performance in net to give the Devils a chance.
They took their chances in the third period and it paid off in a 5-2 win on Monday night at Prudential Center. The Devils are now down 2-1 in the series, which resumes Wednesday in Newark.
Will Butcher tied the game at 2 in the second with a power play goal, the first goal of his postseason career and Stefan Noesen netted the game-winner at 12:55 in the third. Hall assisted on both. Blake Coleman and Ben Lovejoy scored empty-net goals in the final minute of regulation.
Schneider made 34 saves and stayed in the game after getting hurt on a scramble in the third period. It was Schneider's first win of 2018.
Schneider, who was temporarily usurped by Keith Kinkaid after a groin injury in January, appeared to have re-aggravated it after stretching out to kick away a puck by Ryan McDonagh during a goal-mouth scramble. Unable to get up, Schneider made another stop on Tyler Johnson to keep the game tied before play was stopped when former Ranger J.T. Miller tripped Nico Hischier to draw a penalty.
Schneider was unable to get up for several moments and eventually skated off to the bench. Kinkaid looked ready to come in, but Schneider waved him off and remained in the game.
A few minutes later, Noesen gave the Devils their first lead at any point in the series with his first career playoff goal.
The Devils nearly beat themselves by giving the vaunted Tampa Bay power play chances. They took late penalties in the first and second periods that carried over and Alex Killorn and Steven Stamkos scored on both power play opportunities. Killorn has now scored three power play goals in the series.
But it was the Lightning who ended up spending more time in the box and Butcher made them pay.
After Stamkos scored 38 seconds into the third period, Cedric Paquette took a tripping penalty at 2:39. A bad change a minute later had the Devils banging their sticks on the bench to alert the officials to an extra Lightning penalty killer on the ice. They received a gift in the form of a bench minor and had a solid minute of 5-on-3 play. Butcher capitalized at 4:08, rocketing a shot from the point past Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Hall's tally came after the Devils killed off a high-sticking penalty by John Moore. The Devils finally put together a good shift and Moore turned the puck over in the offensive zone to former Miller, who took it back the other way. It very well could have ended up in the back of Schneider's net, but Miller shot wide and got a stick from Moore to put the Devils on the kill.
The thing is, they killed off the minor and they killed any sort of chances Tampa Bay had. In fact, Coleman had better chances and the penalty kill created some momentum that led to a good amount of sustained pressure.
Hall pounced on a loose puck in the crease, the result of an errant clearing attempt, and fired the wrister high on Vasilevskiy to tie the game at 12:14 in the second.
Coleman had three great chances in the first period, including one where Vasilevskiy stopped him point-blank, right on the doorstep. With 3:33 left, Hall got a breakaway and a clear look at a partially open net but the iron was unkind: Hall hit the crossbar and the period remained scoreless through the buzzer.
It was desperate hockey at a time when the Devils were desperate for a win. They're not out of the woods yet, but they're also not out of the series, and that's all that matters.
