Vasilevskiy wins 11th straight start, Lightning defeat Blackhawks

TAMPA -- Andrei Vasilevskiy made 30 saves for his 11th straight win, and the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1 at Amalie Arena on Saturday.

Vasilevskiy's streak is tied with Louis Domingue for the longest in Lightning history, and for ninth in NHL history. Domingue won 11 straight from Nov. 29, 2018 to Feb. 19, 2019.
Steven Stamkos had a goal and an assist, and Victor Hedman had three assists for the Lightning (22-6-2), who swept the two-game set following a 4-2 win here Thursday and are 6-0-1 against the Blackhawks this season.
"It was one of those games where, especially in the second period, we relied on [Vasilevskiy] a little too much," Stamkos said. "There are going to be games like this throughout the course of a season, but you just want to try to minimize them.
"We know we have the best goalie in the world, he showed it again tonight. You don't want to rely on that too often."

Alex DeBrincat scored, and Malcolm Subban made 25 saves for the Blackhawks (14-13-5), who have lost four straight and six of their past seven games.
"I think we needed more points than we got, and it was a long road trip, but I think overall we played pretty decent," Chicago defenseman Adam Boqvist said. "Against these good teams, you have to find a way to win every battle, forecheck hard and put pucks in the net. That's how you're going to win games."
Brayden Point gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead at 6:21 of the first period when he scored off the rebound of Alex Killorn's shot. Anthony Cirelli made it 2-0 at 1:53 of the second period with a backhand alone in front during a 4-on-4.
"First off, [Hedman] and [Mikhail Sergachev] made great plays," Cirelli said. "I tried to make a move and I think it bounced off of his glove."

From there, the Blackhawks made a significant push and put together a 4:15 stretch when they outshot the Lightning 11-0 and had a 5-on-3 for 1:22 but did not score.
"It was unfortunate that we needed him as much as we did, but he was outstanding," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "We just can't have that inconsistent performance. We should've grabbed some momentum after that 5-on-3, but [Vasilevskiy] had to keep us in it."
DeBrincat said the failure to score on the two-man advantage proved to be the difference in the game.
"On a 5-on-3, we've got to convert, and they do a good job of blocking shots, getting in lanes," DeBrincat said. "But we have two extra guys out there, so we should be able to make a play. Obviously, we have to work on that. It just wasn't there today."

Yanni Gourde pushed the lead to 3-0 at 14:15 of the second on the rebound of his shot before Stamkos made it 4-0 at 18:21 with a power-play goal from below the left circle.
"They had about 10 or 11 shots in a row and we hadn't had a shot in 8-10 minutes. I don't know for sure, but it felt that long anyway," Cooper said. "Then Yanni comes off the bench, we get a rush out of it, and he makes a great individual effort to score, and that probably burst their bubble a little bit."
DeBrincat scored to make it 4-1 at 4:50 of the third period, from the high slot off a pass from behind the net by Dominik Kubalik.
"They're a team that punishes you when you make mistakes," Chicago coach Jeremy Colliton said. "We made a few and they scored. They made us suffer, and I thought we created more than enough, especially in the second period. We had a long stretch where we were putting pressure on, but then we're down 1-0. Then they get the 4-on-4 goal, we kind of have a long, hard push, and the third one was tough."
NOTES: The NHL record of 14 straight wins is shared by Tiny Thompson (Boston Bruins, 1929-30), Tom Barrasso (Pittsburgh Penguins, 1992-93), Jonas Hiller (Anaheim Ducks, 2013-14) and Sergei Bobrovsky (Columbus Blue Jackets, 2016-17). ... Vasilevskiy is 20-3-1, tied for second in NHL history with Andrew Hammond (Ottawa Senators, 2014-15) in reaching 20 wins in 24 games. Thompson did so in 23 games in 1929-30.