Devils caught in Lightning storm in 5-goal onslaught

The Devils couldn’t hold off the powerful Lightning, as Nikita Kucherov had a goal and three assists for his first four-point game, leading the Tampa Bay to an easy 5-1 victory Monday night at Prudential Center.

Egor Yakovlev scored his first career goal for the Dev- ils, who have lost six straight and eight of nine. Keith Kinkaid started and gave up four goals on 20 shots before he was pulled after two periods. Cory Schneider had five saves in the third.

The Devils, who lost in regulation at home for only the second time this season, seemed to have the better of the early play, outshooting the Lightning 7-1 over the first 10 minutes, but it didn’t take long for the league’s top offensive team to get going.

Brayden Point had a goal and two assists, Steven Stamkos added a goal and an assist, and Tyler Johnson and Yanni Gourde also scored to help the Lightning become the first team in the league to reach 20 wins this season.

Ryan McDonagh had two assists and Louis Domingue stopped 26 shots as Tampa Bay got its third straight win and sixth in seven games. First, Kucherov extended his points streak to 10 games with a goal with a little more than six minutes left in the first period on a 40-foot shot that seemed to handcuff Kinkaid.

Then Point continued his mastery over the Devils with a power-play goal with less than a minute remaining in the period. It was Point’s 20th goal of the season and his sixth in nine career games against the Devils.

The Lightning made it 3-0 when McDonagh’s wrist shot was deflected in front by Johnson for his 11th.

The Devils crept back into the game at 11:26 of the second period, when rookie defenseman Yakovlev got his first goal.

But the high-flying Lightning wasted little time to push the lead back to three when Gourde scored his 10th just 1:13 later off a pretty feed from Stamkos. —