The Devils douse the Lightning

One year later, New Jersey settles the score

A debt comes due

A year ago, on qualification night, the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the New Jersey Devils 8-5 and ended New Jersey's Gauntlet on the first night. On 2025-10-11 the shelf set the same two candles side by side again in Tampa, in the same round, and one of them would not see a second round. The Lightning had finished 7th of 32 last season. The Devils had finished 16th. A loss meant going dark before the Gauntlet had really begun.

Three before the break

New Jersey came out fast. Timo Meier poked one in at 8:30 of the 1st. Connor Brown tipped in another 1:47 later. Nico Hischier wristed in the third at 13:48, and Luke Hughes picked up his second assist of the period.

Tampa crawled back in the 2nd. Yanni Gourde wristed one home at 7:31, and defenseman Ryan McDonagh fired a slap shot past Jacob Markstrom at 17:23. Suddenly it was 3-2.

Bratt, all alone

Jonas Siegenthaler went off for tripping at 3:21 of the 3rd. So a Devil a man down went and scored: Jesper Bratt, with no assist, wristed in a short-handed goal at 4:48, and it held up as the winner. Brown scored his second 1:41 later. Darren Raddysh answered at 16:17, but too late. Markstrom stopped 14 of 17, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves on 31 shots. Last year's champion of this matchup was snuffed, and 25 flames still burn.