Vasilevskiy makes 31 saves, Lightning shut out Blue Jackets

TAMPA -- Andrei Vasilevskiy made 31 saves for his second shutout of the season to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 4-0 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Amalie Arena on Tuesday.

Vasilevskiy was named to the 2019 Honda NHL All-Star Game on Tuesday as a replacement for Montreal Canadiens goalie Carey Price. It will be Vasilevskiy's second appearance.
"It is a pretty good feeling," Vasilevskiy said. "Especially considering I haven't been as consistent as I want coming back from my injury."
WATCH: [All Blue Jackets vs. Lightning highlights]
Vasilevskiy missed 14 games after fracturing his left foot at practice Nov. 14.
Brayden Point had two goals and an assist, and Nikita Kucherov had a goal and an assist for the Lightning (33-8-2), who are 16-1-1 in their past 18 games. Tampa Bay is 11-0-0 against Metropolitan Division teams this season.

Sergei Bobrovsky allowed four goals on 19 shots for the Blue Jackets (24-15-3) before being pulled in the third period. Joonas Korpisalo made the save on all three shots in relief. Columbus went 1-2-0 on its three-game road trip.
"I'm disappointed for our team because I thought we did a lot of really good things," Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella said. "We know [Vasilevskiy] is a good goalie. We know they are a good team. We have to figure out a way to score goals."
Mathieu Joseph gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 15:55 of the first period with his 11th goal of the season, a chip in off a pass from defenseman Mikhail Sergachev.

"It just bounced on my stick," Joseph said. "It was a great play by [Sergachev] and I was lucky it went in. I think [Bobrovsky] tried to go one side and I picked the other side."
Point made it 2-0 at 16:39 after a shot attempt by Kucherov deflected off his skate.

The Blue Jackets outshot the Lightning 17-3 in the second period and put together several scoring chances against Vasilevskiy, including two by Artemi Panarin.
"We're trying to make an emphasis on letting [Vasilevskiy] see the puck," defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. "If we can do that there's a good chance he will stop it."
Blue Jackets forward Boone Jenner said "You don't want to be chasing the game. They were able to score a few. I thought we picked it up from there but obviously it's not easy when you're chasing."
Kucherov extended the lead to 3-0 at 6:05 of the third period with his 21st goal of the season. He is the first player to reach the 70-point mark this season (21 goals, 50 assists).

Point made it 4-0 at 8:53.
"We had a lot of guys selling out tonight and we played a good game," Point said. "Whenever you can come away with a win it's a good thing."
Sergachev and Lightning forward Tyler Johnson each had two assists.
"We can't just play 20 minutes, we have to find a way to put to 40-50 minutes together of great hockey," Blue Jackets defenseman Seth Jones said. "We're not going to be perfect but we have to find a way to keep that pressure sustained for more than a period."
Blue Jackets forward Markus Hannikainen (upper body) and Brandon Dubinsky (lower body) left the game during the second period.
"We lost a couple of guys but it's going to happen throughout the year," Jenner said. "It was a challenge for us to get going in the third period after the strong second and they were able to get a third goal."

They said it

"The second period was, probably, our most efficient and complete period. When we're on top of them like we were in the second period, their goalie was just outstanding. I thought we were outstanding and we come away empty."-- Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella
"He makes a remarkable save on Panarin. His competitiveness, work ethic, conditioning … you never have to worry about that with Vasilevskiy. He's been our rock for the past couple of years."-- Lightning coach Jon Cooper

Need to know

Kucherov is the 10th different NHL player to have 50 assists in 43 team games and the first since Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Jaromir Jagr and Ron Francis all did it in 1995-96. Kucherov is also the first player score 70 points in the first 43 games since Jagr did it in 1999-2000 (38 games). … Tortorella failed to win his 600th NHL game. … Victor Hedman played his 662nd NHL game to tie Pavel Kubina for most games played by a Lightning defenseman. … Panarin had his seven-game point streak end. … Point has 16 points (five goals, 11 assists) in the past 10 games.

What's next

Blue Jackets: Host the Nashville Predators on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; FS-O, FS-TN, NHL.TV)
Lightning: Host the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; SUN, FS-SE, NHL.TV)