Andrei Vasilevskiy joins rare company following Tampa Bay Lightning victory in St. Louis

by Erik Erlendsson | @Erik_Erlendsson | Like us on Facebook
December 12, 2017

The works of Salvador Dali might be described as imperfects works of art.

The methods were sometimes madness. The scenes often complex to view.

But the end result proved the same – a framed piece of original art worthy to hung next to the rest.

That’s pretty much how the Tampa Bay Lightning feel about Tuesday’s 3-0 victory at St. Louis. It is just worthy enough to be one of the 22 in the right column.

But it sure wasn’t pretty, outside the play of goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy, who recorded his third shutout of the season and became the first goalie this season to reach 20 victories on the season and joined some rare company in the process.

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With the victory, Vasilevskiy became the sixth goaltender in league history to reach the 20-win mark in the first 25 appearances of the season. The others are: Tiny Thompson (with Boston in 1929-30), Andrew Hammond (with Ottawa in 2014-15), Bill Durnan (with Montreal in 1943-44), Pete Peeters (with Philadelphia in 1970-80) and Braden Holtby (with Washington in 2015-16). All accomplished the feat in 25 games, with the exception of Thompson (23 games) and Hammond (24 games).

Vasilevskiy was brilliant on Tuesday in stopping 34 shots for his seventh career shutout. He turned aside seven Vladimir Tarasenko shots. He stopped eight Dmitry Jaskin shots. He survived a Vladimir Sobotko missed shot with the left side of the net wide open as the puck slid completely across the crease behind Vasilevskiy.

Vasilevskiy was so sharp, he even stopped a puck that took an odd bounce off the stanchion and the rebound chance that quickly followed in what can only be described as a pair of unconventional stops.

He was easily the No. 1 star on this night.

”In the second period, we let them have a chance to get right back in the game and our goalie had to bail us out,’’ Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “And then, our third period, we scored in the third, we had some chances actually to extend it, but in the end, we were just careless. We made our goalie have to stress out getting a shutout when I don’t think we needed to do that. That’s what happens, you turn pucks over, especially to a team like that, a real good team, it can burn you. We were just very fortunate tonight our goalie was up to the task.’’

It really should be no surprise anymore when Vasilevskiy comes up with this type of masterpiece. He’s proven to be the type of netminder who can be at his best to lead the Lightning to victory, even when perhaps the team in front of them is having one of those off nights.

And it’s not as if Vasilevskiy had to totally steal the game for Tampa Bay, he was just there to cover up some of the mistakes that the Lightning made with the puck.

The Lightning had a good first period, held St. Louis to six shots on goal and skated away with the lead when Brayden Point scored for the fourth consecutive game, finding his own rebound after a nice play from Tyler Johnson with 44.2 seconds left in the period.

in the second, Vasilevskiy stopped all 12 shots he faced to preserve the one-goal lead heading in to the second period and continued that in to the third, turning aside 14 shots.

And it was just after Sobotka missed the open net that Tampa Bay increased the lead to 2-0 when Mikhail Sergachev left a pass for Nikita Kucherov, who sniped a wrist shot clean through traffic over the shoulder of Jake Allen for his 21st of the season to tie Alex Ovechkin for the league lead.

Johnson added an empty net goal with 22 seconds left and the Lightning held on to preserve Vasilevskiy’s shutout.

”He’s big for us every night,’’ Johnson said. “He’s been a guy that you can rely on night after night. You don’t like doing that, but he’s very talented. He can make those big saves for us and that’s the reason why you win games.’’

Vasilevskiy has certainly been there on a nightly basis for his team, with just four regulation losses through 25 starts. But he knows the team is there for him, as well.

”This was a tough challenge for us, but I thought guys played really well in front of me,’’ Vasilevskiy said. “Our team deserved the shutout.’’

Postgame notes:. RW Ryan Callahan was scratched for unspecified reasons, though he has required some “maintenance’’ days off from practice recently. … Point extended his goal-scoring streak to a career long four games. … Johnson has three goals and six assists during a season-long, five-game scoring streak. … D Braydon Coburn missed his fifth consecutive game with a lower body injury. … Tampa Bay improved to 6-0 against Central Division opponents… The Lightning went 0-for-3 on the power play, ending a stretch of consecutive games with a power play goal at nine. … The Lightning matched a season best five-game winning streak. … Tampa Bay swept a season-series from St. Louis for the first time in franchise history. … The Lightning were 0-4-1 in St. Louis in the previous five trips to Scottrade Center.

My three stars:
1.Lightning G Andrei Vasilevskiy – Brilliant in stopping 32 shots for his fourth shutout of the season

2.Lightning C Brayden Point – Goal, assist, plus-2

3. Lightning D Mikhail Sergachev – Assist, 10 shot attempts in career high 21:30 of ice time

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