Stars blanked by Lightning, fail to gain in Central

TAMPA --The Dallas Stars failed to gain ground in the Discover Central Division race when Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves to help the Tampa Bay Lightning defeat them 3-0 at Amalie Arena on Thursday.

Dallas is two points behind the Nashville Predators for fourth place, the last remaining Stanley Cup Playoff berth in the eight-team division. The teams play at Nashville on Saturday.
"We've got to find ways to get points," Stars forward Blake Comeau said. "… If you want to make it in the playoffs, you have to go through some really good teams to get where we want to be at. That's winning the Stanley Cup."
Ondrej Palat, Blake Coleman and Brayden Point scored for the Lightning (34-14-2), who have won four straight and have clinched a playoff berth. Tampa Bay is one point behind the Florida Panthers for second place in the Central, three points behind the Carolina Hurricanes for first.
Vasilevskiy leads the NHL with 30 wins and has five shutouts, three against the Stars.
"It was good to see [Vasilevskiy] get in his rhythm," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "You could see he was tracking pucks and he was on it. And otherwise there were some big blocks too. Guys were sacrificing tonight, and it was good to see."
Jake Oettinger made 25 saves for the Stars (21-17-12), who have lost two straight and three of five.
"Jake was really good, he did his job," Dallas coach Rick Bowness said. "He gave us an opportunity to get a point out of here. Can't fault him on the goals that went in at all. He made some big saves when he had to. I really liked Jake's game."
Palat gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 14:41 of the first period after he forced Stars defenseman Jamie Oleksiak into a turnover and scored from the high slot.
"A big part of our identity is our forecheck, trying to be on top of teams," Cooper said. "When you're on somebody you can try and force them to make mistakes. And that turned out to be a pivotal point in the game because that goal stood up for quite a while."

Dallas outshot Tampa Bay 12-2 in the second period, but Vasilevskiy made several tough saves and improved to 10-1-3 against the Stars.
"Two mistakes we made cost us goals," Bowness said. "In the second we needed to score on those opportunities that we had, and we didn't. 'Vasy' made some big saves for them at the time, and we had some [odd-man rushes] that we didn't score [on]."
Coleman scored on a penalty shot to extend the lead to 2-0 at 8:27 of the third period. With Tampa Bay shorthanded, Coleman stole the puck from Dallas defenseman John Klingberg and was tripped by him on a breakaway.
"Obviously I was pretty gassed even before I took that puck at center, so it took everything I had just to get that breakaway," Coleman said. "I tried to take a minute to regain myself."
Point scored into an empty net at 18:39 for the 3-0 final.
NOTES: Vasilevskiy is the first Lightning goalie with four straight 30-win seasons. ... Tampa Bay is 5-1-0 against Dallas with two games remaining, May 5 and 7 here. ... Dallas forward Jason Robertson had his nine-game point streak end. It is a Stars rookie record, surpassing Jamie Langenbrunner's eight-game streak in 1996-97. … Dallas forward Joel Kiviranta (lower body) played for the first time since March 21 (21 games). He had two shots in 11:37 of ice time.