On a night that began with the Tampa Bay Lightning honoring goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy for reaching 300 career wins in a ceremony that featured a bouquet of flowers, an engraved golden stick and a custom watch, the crowd at AMALIE Arena ended the night with roaring chants for the Russian goaltender.
Chants of “VASY, VASY, VASY” boomed through AMALIE Arena on Saturday night after Vasilevskiy earned win 301 and was named the game’s first star with a 29-save shutout–the 36th blank-slate of his NHL career–to lead the Lightning to a 4-0 victory over the New Jersey Devils.
Tampa Bay improved to 9-6-1 this season with the win.
“That was a great ceremony, richly deserved,” head coach Jon Cooper said. “It just speaks volumes about Vasy to kind of shut the door like he did tonight. Pretty cool night.”
Vasilevskiy’s shutout is his second of the season (Oct. 26 vs. Washington) as the goalie improved to 8-5-1 with a .920 save percentage and 2.15 goals-against-average. He is 5-2-1 across his last eight games.
“I thought the guys played well,” Vasilevskiy said. “Obviously the team gave me a few gifts before the game, and the most important gift (was) that they played great tonight in front of me and they helped me out to get another shutout.”
Nick Paul handed the home team the game’s first goal with just over five minutes left in the first period.
Forward Jake Guentzel skated the puck out of the right corner, reaching the hashmark on the wall before finding Paul in the high slot. Paul sent a wrist shot past the glove of New Jersey goalie Jacob Markstrom, who couldn’t see beyond a netfront screen by Gage Goncalves.
It took less than a minute into the third period for defenseman Darren Raddysh to score his first goal of the year and push Tampa Bay’s lead to 2-0.
After Anthony Cirelli won a faceoff in the offensive zone, a waiting Raddysh whistled a one-timer from the top of the right circle into the bottom left corner of the New Jersey net 39 seconds into the period.
Four different players–including two defensemen–scored for the Lightning.
"When you're getting contributions from everybody–the same usual suspects are up there with a couple points and stuff like that–but it's spread around the D, it’s actually good for morale,” Cooper said.
Tampa Bay captain Victor Hedman made it 3-0 with the only power-play goal of the game for either team, slapping a one-timer into the top right corner of the net from the top of the umbrella setup after a pass from Kucherov at the left wall with 12:20 left in the game.
Anthony Cirelli was awarded an empty-net goal in the final minute after a New Jersey player threw their stick at the puck.
Tampa Bay’s penalty kill erased all four of New Jersey’s power plays in the game. Guentzel had two assists for the Lightning, as did Kucherov–who is now one point away from 900 in his NHL career.
Saturday’s win is the second straight for Tampa Bay after the Lightning beat the Winnipeg Jets 4-1 on Thursday. Winnipeg leads the NHL with a 15-3-0 record and the Devils are atop the Metropolitan Division at 12-7-2.
“Two great teams,” Hedman said of the last two games. “New Jersey came in beating Florida back to back on the road, and Winnipeg had lost one game coming into here. So it just goes to show the quality that we have in this room when we play the right way.”
The Lightning will now head on their family trip for the 2024-25 season, a two-game road trip that begins with a visit to Pittsburgh (7-10-3 this season) on Tuesday and ends in Columbus (6-9-2) on Thursday.
Benjamin’s Three Stars:
- Andrei Vasilevskiy, TBL (29-save shutout)
- Victor Hedman, TBL (Goal, assist)
- Anthony Cirelli, TBL (Assist, ENG)
