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Saturday, Oct. 21 7:30pm ET
Seven Devils, seven goals, easy win | |||||
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BOX SCORE
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- The Tampa Bay Lightning picked the wrong time to play the New Jersey Devils. The defending Stanley Cup champions, upset about a winless two-game road trip (0-1-1), came home Saturday night to take out their frustration on the Lightning with a 7-2 rout. Seven different players scored goals and Patrik Elias had three assists. "We didn't want it to snowball," said defenseman Ken Sutton, one of the Devils goal scorers. "We had some team meetings about the way we've been playing and some good practices. "I think we rectified it tonight. Now we need to stay consistent. We don't want to do it every three or four games." The Lightning fell behind 2-0 after one period and completely collapsed in the second as the Devils got to goalie Dan Cloutier for five more goals and a 7-0 lead. "To be honest, I felt good," Cloutier said. "It was just one of those nights. It was probably my worst night ever in hockey. "We're a close team here, the youngest in the National Hockey League, and we stick together. We have a lot of ups and downs and these nights are going to happen. We have to stick together to get through it." Kevin Weekes relieved Cloutier to start the third and shut down the Devils the rest of the way. In addition to Sutton, Petr Sykora, Randy McKay, Sergei Nemchinov, Brian Rafalski, Jim McKenzie and Sergei Brylin also scored for New Jersey. Fredrik Modin snapped Chris Terreri's shutout bid with a rifle shot off a left-wing rush 1:02 into the third period. Pavel Kubina added a power-play goal at 17:00. Terreri made his first start since April 3, a 5-2 loss to the Panthers in Florida. He did not see action in the Devils' 23-game march to the Stanley Cup. Martin Brodeur got a rare night off after a subpar performance Thursday night in the Devils' 5-2 loss to the Washington Capitals. "The team played so solid," Terreri said. "We came out ready to play. We never gave them a chance. They never had a chance all night." Sykora and McKay scored first period power-play goals to spark the Devils to a 2-0 lead. Sykora unloaded a slap shot from just above the right circle to get New Jersey rolling at 10:17. Center Bobby Holik, who set up Sykora's goal, also got the primary assist on McKay's goal at 17:23 as he fed a pass to the unchecked forward in the slot. New Jersey scored five goals in the second to build a 7-0 lead. With the teams skating 4-on-4, Nemchinov and Sutton scored 40 seconds apart to put the Devils up 4-0. Nemchinov scored off a backhander on a breakaway at 8:19. Rafalski added the Devils' third power-play goal at 13:12. McKenzie, at 17:52 and Brylin, at 19:21, tacked on late second-period scores for the Devils. Game notesThe game was the sixth in a string of eight games to start the season for the Devils against non-divisional opponents. New Jersey, which went 13-5-2 against Atlantic Division opponents last year, first faces a division foe on Oct. 28 when it plays the Penguins in Pittsburgh. ... The Devils lead the series with the Lightning 26-6-4, including 16-2-1 at Continental Airlines Arena. ... Sutton's goal was his first in two NHL seasons. He last scored on March 27, 1999. Sutton spent most of last season with the Devils' minor league club in Albany of the AHL. | ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard Tampa Bay Clubhouse New Jersey Clubhouse RECAPS Toronto 2 Calgary 1
New Jersey 7 AUDIO/VIDEO   Sergei Nemchinov takes in the Alexander Mogilny pass for the score.avi: 547 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 | |||||