Congratulations to Andrei Vasilevskiy, who became the fastest goalie in NHL history to reach 300 wins. He hit the milestone with a 24-save performance in the Lightning’s impressive victory over the Winnipeg Jets, who entered the game having won 15 of their first 16 games.
The Lightning hadn’t played in a week. Sometimes, a long layoff can impact a team negatively at the start of a game. The players may be out of sync since they haven’t been in game action for several days. That didn’t happen to the Lightning in this contest. Instead, they looked fresh and energized. They came out of the gates well, applying early and consistent pressure on Winnipeg. They also had a shooting mentality. The Lightning posted six of the game’s first seven shots and grabbed a 1-0 lead during that timeframe. Ryan McDonagh disrupted a Winnipeg rush attempt at the Tampa Bay blue line and reversed the puck up ice to Nick Paul. Paul carried it to the left circle in the offensive zone and dropped a pass to Jake Guentzel in the high slot. Guentzel fired an uncontested shot past the stick of Eric Comrie at 7:24.
The Jets pushed back in the second half of the first period. At one point, they evened the shot-on-goal count at seven. Their momentum surge was fueled in part by some sloppy Lightning puck play. But Tampa Bay defended hard without the puck, and Vasilevskiy took care of the shots that came his way.
One key to the Lightning’s triumph was the work of the penalty kill. Winnipeg entered the game with a staggeringly high power-play percentage of 42.2. But the Lightning killed four Winnipeg power plays (and a fifth in the game's closing seconds), holding the Jets to just one total shot on goal. The first of those kills occurred late in the first period, so it carried over into the start of the second. After killing the penalty, the Lightning grabbed momentum. They dominated play over the next several minutes and added to their lead. At 3:10, Brandon Hagel finished a cross-ice pass from Darren Raddysh, lifting a left-circle shot over Comrie’s glove. On the next shift, the Jets took a penalty. On the ensuing power play, the Lightning won three consecutive offensive-zone faceoffs. Following the third of those wins, Victor Hedman wristed a shot from the high slot that Anthony Cirelli deflected past Comrie. Cirelli’s tally at 4:07 was his 100th career goal.
In the minutes after that goal, the Lightning became careless with the puck. Following two d-zone turnovers on the same shift, they allowed a deflection goal to Adam Lowry at 6:54. Soon after, Winnipeg went on its second power-play chance of the game. But the Lightning delivered another strong penalty kill, preserving their two-goal lead. The Lightning were on the wrong end of the possession battle for the remainder of the second period, but it didn’t cost them. They continued to defend hard without the puck, and when they had breakdowns, Vasilevskiy turned aside those Winnipeg chances. Two of his best stops came on open looks for Kyle Connor and Nikolaj Ehlers.
In the third period, the Lightning ceded the majority of the possession to the Jets (who were aided by a couple of additional power-play chances). But they kept Winnipeg’s scoring-chance number low. Vasilevskiy took care of the 12 third-period shots he faced, and Guentzel sealed the win with an empty-netter at 19:39. Hagel made the goal possible when he raced down the ice to negate an icing. The remaining time ticked down, and the Lightning congratulated their goalie on his milestone victory.
Lightning Radio Three Stars of the Game (as selected by Phil Esposito):
- Andrei Vasilevskiy — Lightning. 24 saves. 300 career wins.
- Jake Guentzel — Lightning. Two goals.
- Nick Paul — Lightning. Assist.
