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      Kings at Lightning | Recap

      TAMPA -- Brandon Hagel had two goals and an assist, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves for the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 3-0 win against the Los Angeles Kings at Amalie Arena on Thursday.

      "You've watched the progression of a player in all facets," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said of Hagel. "Especially the offensive side of his game has really come into its own. You look at a couple of years ago when he got traded here, could he have foreseen he'd be playing for Team Canada in 2025? I don't know if any of us would have foreseen that, and here he is."

      The shutout was Vasilevskiy’s third of the season and 37th in the NHL. He was scratched Tuesday with an illness, a game Tampa Bay lost 4-1 to the Chicago Blackhawks.

      "I had a pretty good morning skate and fortunately I didn't have time to think too much," said Vasilevskiy, who also had an assist. "So I just went out and played. The guys played well defensively, so that's the result."

      Said Hagel of Vasilevskiy: “‘Vasy’ is Vasy," Hagel said. "Sick or not, he's still the best in the world."

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          LAK@TBL: Vasilevskiy stops 28, blanking Kings

          Anthony Cirelli also scored, and Nikita Kucherov had an assist for the Lightning (27-20-3), who were 1-4-0 in their previous five.

          David Rittich made 30 saves for the Kings (26-17-6), who are 0-3-1 in their past four. Los Angeles was coming off a 3-0 loss to the Florida Panthers on Wednesday.

          "You've got to keep on going really," Kings captain Anze Kopitar said. "We do have chances, but for whatever reason the pucks are not going in. It's very hard, obviously mentally, when you're not scoring and losing tight games.

          “It ends up being 3-0 tonight, but it was tighter than the score. We've got to find a way. That's the bottom line. There's no other way to put it."

          Hagel gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead at 4:45 of the first period, skating past Jordan Spence and beating Rittich with the forehand. Gage Goncalves set up the goal with a cross-ice pass from the boards to find Hagel in stride.

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              LAK@TBL: Hagel buries a wrister to open scoring

              The Kings appeared to tie the game on a goal by Quinton Byfield in the second period, but video review determined the play was offside and the goal was overturned following a challenge by the Lightning.

              "[Jacob Moverare] was over with possession...his skates...when he released the pass to [Byfield] the puck wasn't fully over the blue line yet," Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller said. "A couple inches...millimeters maybe. We needed one. That was a big goal. What do you do, right? That's the rules. We just missed it."

              Hagel made it 2-0 at 15:39 of the third period after sending a pass to a streaking Kucherov for a breakaway. Rittich made the save on the breakaway, but Hagel beat Drew Doughty to the loose puck and scored on the rebound.

              "We stuck with it, we had tons of chances, and the score maybe could have been a little bit different," Hagel said. "But we ended up getting one late. I think it shows a lot of grit by our team to stick with it and kind of put that frustration behind you."

              Cirelli scored an empty-net short-handed goal at 18:43 for the 3-0 final with Rittich pulled on the power-play for a 6-on-4 advantage.

              "I don't think our confidence is there right now," Spence said. "Obviously we have some chances to score some goals; we're not capitalizing on our chances. At the end of the day, we're not playing well right now. We just have to reset, forget about tonight and get ready for [the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday]."

              NOTES: Kings defenseman Mikey Anderson left the game in the first period with an upper-body injury and did not return. Hiller said he was concerned about Anderson's injury but expects him to travel to Carolina. ...Lightning goalie Jonas Johansson was scratched with a lower-body injury. Matt Tomkins was recalled from Syracuse and dressed as the backup. … Doughty was minus-2 in 27:43, his second game back from a broken ankle sustained during the preseason.