Vasilevskiy shines again as Lightning win fourth consecutive

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
November 19, 2016

Andrei Vasilevskiy will one day be a No. 1 goaltender.

Truth be told, he already plays like one.

Vasilevskiy posted his second consecutive shutout on Saturday afternoon, stopping 32 shots leading a battered Lightning team to a 3-0 victory at Wells Fargo Center.

Jonathan Drouin, who briefly left the game before returning after a hit from Brayden Schenn, scored his third goal of the season. Tyler Johnson and Ondrej Palat also scored as Tampa Bay won its fourth consecutive game, the longest winning streak since the Lightning won a franchise record nine straight games from Feb. 18 to March 5 last season.

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With Tampa Bay already missing captain Steven Stamkos and defenseman Anton Stralman, the Lightning started the game without center Brian Boyle. Then during the game, Drouin and Brayden Point left for long stretches. Point returned last in the game wearing a full protective cage over his face, the result of taking a high stick to his upper lip that left him looking like he lost a battle with a rabid cat.

Through all that, Vasilevskiy proved to be the clam among the chaos posting his second shutout of the road trip and has not allowed a goal in his past seven periods of play dating back to his Nov. 10 start against the New York Islanders.

“He’s locked in,’’ Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “He’s in command. You can see your goalies, when guys are coming down, they’re almost a little deflated . . . because he’s that in command of what’s going on. He’s tracking every puck. He’s playing the puck well. When the rebounds are, or stuff’s getting a little scrambly, he’s like the calm in the storm and he’s just swallowing pucks. He was great for us tonight.’’

The last goal allowed by Vasilevskiy, who recorded his fourth shutout of the season, came at the 8:04 mark on Nov. 10. His shutout streak stands at 151 minutes, 56 seconds, while he became the sixth goaltender in franchise history to record shutouts in consecutive starts and the first since Dwayne Roloson in 2011.

“I’m playing more games right now and I’m feeling more confident,’’ Vasilevskiy said after the game. “I just want to say thank you to the whole team for second straight shutout.’’

The Lightning played with a hunker-down mentality to the game, particularly when the bench started to get shortened with players heading back to the locker room for medical treatment. Tampa Bay finished with a season-high 21 blocked shots with 14 different players registering at least one.

“It was tough on the bench because at one point I’m looking down and I think we had six guys sitting there,’’ Cooper said. “You know, it takes you out of your rhythm. It was big for us we got the lead. And we were able to hang on in the second and go to the third with a lead, that was big for us, especially with all the guys we were losing’’

Johnson’s power play goal took some of the early pressure off when he sent a pass up to Valtteri Filppula at the Philadelphia blue line. Filppula put a touch pass in to the past of Alex Killorn, who faked a shot before finding a wide open Johnson across the ice for an easy shot in to the vacated side of the net.

Palat would make it 2-0 in the second period, taking a drop pass from Vladislav Namestnikov just inside the Flyers’ zone. As Namestnikov made his way to the slot, Palat used his teammate as a screen as he cut to the middle of the ice and sent a shot across the grain for his third goal of the season.

Drouin knocked the spirit out of the Flyers as he jumped out of the zone as Palat sent a long pass from deep inside his own end and banked the puck off the sideboards to send Drouin in on a breakaway that he finished off at 4:26 of the third period.

Postgame notes: Tampa Bay has scored the opening goal in all four games on its current winning streak and held the lead after the first period in all four. The Lightning led after 20 minutes just three times in the opening 15 games of the season. … Boyle is listed as day-to-day with an undisclosed upper-body injury. … D Luke Witkowski made his season debut. … The Lightning killed off all five power plays against Philadelphia’s second rated power play unit. … Tampa Bay improved to 12-0-1 on the season when scoring three or more goals. … Palat recorded his 46th career multi-point game.

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