Ilya Kovalchuk scored to snap a tie midway through the third period and Martin Brodeur turned aside 15 shots as the New Jersey Devils skated to a 2-1 home victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Wednesday.

Defenseman Henrik Tallinder collected his fourth goal of the season and second in five games for New Jersey (28-31-4), which has won nine of 10 and improved to 18-2-2 in its last 22 contests. With the win, the Devils are now nine points behind the eighth-place Carolina Hurricanes (30-25-9) in the competitive Eastern Conference standings.

Playing in his first contest since his 12-game point streak came to an end, Kovalchuk snapped a tie at 10:10 of the third period. The 27-year-old Russian accepted a brilliant feed from Travis Zajac and wired a shot past Dwayne Roloson for his eighth goal and ninth assist in 14 games.

Brodeur made the slim advantage stand up to secure his second win since returning from a three-week absence with a sprained knee.

Dominic Moore opened the scoring at 4:41 of the second period after redirecting Pavel Kubina's centering feed past Brodeur. Tallinder leveled the contest with 75 seconds remaining in the session after gathering a loose puck and unleashing a shot past a screened Roloson.

Roloson finished with 25 saves for Southeast Division-leading Tampa Bay (37-19-7), which saw its three-game winning streak come to an end.