Vasilevskiy makes 45 saves, Lightning shut out Red Wings

DETROIT --Andrei Vasilevskiy made 45 saves for his 30th NHL shutout, and the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Detroit Red Wings 3-0 at Little Caesars Arena on Saturday.

"Andrei is an outstanding goalie in this league, so we've seen him play great games on a number of occasions," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "Probably not to this extent, just because we don't usually play this poorly."
It was the most saves Vasilevskiy has made in a regular-season shutout, topping the 43 he had in a 2-0 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Oct. 19, 2017. He had a 49-save postseason shutout against the Florida Panthers on May 23, 2022.
Vasilevskiy was quick to share the credit. Detroit had 84 shot attempts, but the Tampa Bay defense blocked 29 of them, eight by Victor Hedman.
"I'd rather play in a game like this where my defense is playing great and blocking shots than a game where I face 15 shots and three of them are 2-on-1s and five are breakaways," Vasilevskiy said. "I didn't have time to think tonight. When I only face 15 shots, I probably think too much."

Brayden Point, Nikita Kucherov and Alex Killorn each had a goal and an assist for Tampa Bay (37-17-4), which had lost three of four (1-1-2).
"I've been with this organization for a long time, about a decade, and we've lost a lot of games where we were the better team," Cooper said. "We haven't won as many when we weren't the better team, but that's what happened tonight."
Ville Husso, playing his 100th NHL game, made 15 saves for Detroit (28-22-8), which had won seven of eight.
"He's a world-class goalie and, as the other team, you never want to see him get hot like that and pucks are hitting him," Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin said. "We're trying to not get too low here. We played one of our best games at 5-on-5 in a long time. You could just tell that [Vasilevskiy] was going to be the difference tonight."

Point gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 9:04 of the first period, taking a pass from Kucherov and breaking in alone to beat Husso for his 35th goal of the season.
Kucherov hit the post at 16:18, and Vasilevskiy did the splits to rob Tyler Bertuzzi at 16:59.
Detroit outshot Tampa Bay 20-3 in the second period, but Vasilevskiy made several point-blank saves.
"As a team, they dig coming off poor losses, but no one digs in like [Vasilevskiy] off a poor performance," said Red Wings coach Derek Lalonde, who spent the past four seasons as an assistant coach in Tampa Bay. "Obviously, it feels like we deserved a better fate, but he was just remarkable."

Kucherov made it 2-0 at 19:53 of the second, putting a backhand between Husso's legs.
"That was a huge moment for our confidence," Hedman said. "We got ourselves into a mess in our end, but [Vasilevskiy] got us out of it, and then we go down and get one with seven seconds left.
"That's a big moment."
Killorn, who hit the post at 11:13 of the third period, made it 3-0 with an empty-net goal at 17:47.
NOTES:Red Wings forward Michael Rasmussen left the game in the first period with a lower-body injury after blocking a shot. Lalonde said the puck hit him on the left knee and he was still undergoing evaluation. … Detroit had hoped to get forward Lucas Raymond back against the Lightning, but he was unable to play. Raymond has been out since sustaining a lower-body injury in a practice collision with Ben Chiarot on Feb. 10. … Vasilevskiy tied Ben Bishop (April 4, 2013) and Daren Puppa (Nov. 27, 1995) for the most saves by a Lightning goalie in a regular-season shutout. ... Vasilevskiy is 14-2-0 in 16 career games against the Red Wings. … Kucherov has 41 points (20 goals, 21 assists) in 32 games against Detroit. … The Red Wings held the Lightning to a season-low 18 shots. ... Lightning forward Erik Cernak served the first of a two-game suspension for elbowing Buffalo Sabres forward Kyle Okposo on Thursday.