NEWARK, N.J. _ Nico Hischier took his stick and slammed it onto the ice.
The No. 1 overall pick played his best game among the first six of his NHL career, notching two assists and using his speed to propel his line with Taylor Hall and Drew Stafford into the offensive zone with regularity.
He did everything but score his first goal. Lightning goalie Peter Budaj, with highlight-reel saves in the second and third period on the Devils' rookie, saw to that.
Yet it was enough for the Devils, who matched the Lightning's speed and rallied in a thriller, 5-4, in a shootout on Tuesday night at Prudential Center.
Kyle Palmieri scored the only goal of the shootout, in the third round, and then Cory Schneider denied Ryan Callahan to clinch the win.
Hischier set up Stafford's power-play goal at 15:54 of the third period, his second goal of the game, sending the puck to the crease from the right circle where Stafford tipped it toward the net then batted in his own rebound.
Hischier's frustration led to a stick slam at 6:48 of the third period as Budaj smothered his close-range wrist shot. Yet, the Devils gutted out the win from there despite Nikita Kucherov scoring in his seventh straight game to start the season.
Schneider stopped 33 shots for the Devils (5-1-0) while Budaj, in his first appearance this season, made 31 saves for the Lightning (5-1-1).
The Devils killed off Pavel Zacha's roughing penalty for the final 1:58 of regulation and Adam Henrique's tripping call with 47.6 seconds left in overtime.
Hischier wound up with the two shots in 18:21 of ice time and two others that just missed.
Budaj, 35, had gone 27-20-3 with a 2.12 goals-against average and a .917 save percentage last season for the Kings, playing in 53 games with Jonathan Quick injured for a significant portion of the season.
But Budaj clearly was rusty in the first period.
The Devils took a 1-0 lead at 2:15 on an innocent-looking Stafford flip from the right boards that somehow bounded through Budaj's pads. Hischier's feed was his third assist of the season and rookie defenseman Will Butcher notched his ninth assist.
Then, the Devils took a 3-2 lead with 51.5 seconds left in the period after defenseman Steven Santini, at the right boards, banked a shot off the backboards that Budaj could not cover as it bounced toward the crease. Brian Gibbons instead poked it in for his third goal.
Budaj also allowed Kyle Palmieri's short-side wrister from above the right circle for a power-play to tie the game at 2 at 16:19. Vladislav Namestnikov had tied the game at 1 at 7:33 after slipping behind Andy Greene and converting Kucherov's feed under Damon Severson's stick. Ondrej Palat's power-play goal at 12:21 gave the Lightning a 2-1 lead.
But Budaj was the difference in the second period, stopping all nine shots he faced while the Lightning scored twice.
First, Kucherov became just the second player in the past 30 years with goals in each of his team's first seven games as he rocketed a shot low past Schneider's left pad off Steven Stamkos' feed at 14:52 to tie the game at 3. Then Stamkos regained the lead for the Lightning on a backhander at the crease after Yanni Gourde forced a turnover behind the Devils' net.
It was the third Lightning goal that saw the Devils' top defense pair of Andy Greene and Damon Severson on the ice.
Meanwhile, Budaj kept Hischier from his first NHL goal by sticking out his right pad at 4:34. The goalie also slid over to deny Palmieri at 12:46 and stopped Wood's backhander to start the rush that led to Stamkos' goal.
But he saved his best for last in the period, sprawling to stop Hischier on the rush by getting the tip of his glove on the shot and send the Devils into the second intermission trailing by one.
