Vasilevskiy wins 10th in row, Lightning score seven against Jets

WINNIPEG-- Andrei Vasilevskiy won his 10th straight start, and Anthony Cirelli scored his first NHL hat trick when the Tampa Bay Lightning defeated the Winnipeg Jets 7-1 at Bell MTS Place on Friday.

Nikita Kucherov scored twice, and Ondrej Palat had three assists for the Lightning (29-15-4), who are 12-2-0 in their past 14 games.
"Anytime you go on a run as we've got on here the last few weeks, you're going to need everybody pulling in the same direction," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "But in the end you need your goalie to bail you out when it's needed. Tonight I know we had a three-goal lead after one (period), but you knew a proud team over there was going to push at home. They got 18 shots in the second period] and [Vasilevskiy] stood tall the whole time. … He's been a big part of the run we're on."
***[WATCH: [All Lightning vs. Jets highlights]*
Connor Hellebuyck allowed five goals on 12 shots for the Jets (25-19-4), and Laurent Brossoit made 12 saves in relief.
"It could be just losing sight of some of those little details, but I feel like the mindset's right," Winnipeg captain Blake Wheeler said. "It feels like the effort's there, it feels like the mentality's there, it feels like we're connected on the ice. But with all that being said, at the end of the day, 7-1 at home, that's not going to get the job done. There's definitely some things to figure out."
Cirelli scored twice in the first period, making it 1-0 at 9:27 and 3-0 at 19:07. His third goal came at 7:48 of the third period for a 6-1 lead. He has 12 goals this season.
"Obviously pretty special," said Cirelli, who played his 147th NHL game. "It was my first one and something I'll remember for the rest of my life. … They don't come around a lot in this league and it's super hard. So I will take anything that I can get. [The third goal] was a lucky bounce to hit [Dmitri Kulikov's] stick and go in."

Vasilevskiy matched the longest winning streak of his NHL career (Feb. 9-March 5, 2019).
"He's just really dialed in," Tampa Bay defenseman Ryan McDonough said. "We know he can, and he's proven it all this time as a Lightning player."
Kucherov extended the lead to 2-0 at 12:21 of the first period and to 4-0 at 7:21 of the second period.

Carter Verhaeghe made it 5-0 at 11:10 of the second period. Jack Roslovic ended Vasilevskiy's shutout 34 seconds later to make it 5-1.
Alex Killorn scored his NHL career-high 20th goal of the season at 10:45 of the third period for the 7-1 final.
"We are just not defensively competitive enough in that game to win," Jets coach Paul Maurice said. "We gave up six shots in the first [period] and three ended up in the back of the net. There's a 1-on-0, a 2-on-0, and a 2-on-1. First, third, fourth, fifth goal, we should be fairly even strength at times in those plays. And they either outskated us or beat us to the net hard."

They said it

"They were pretty excited. I can't really hear right now because [shaving cream] is still in my ear. But I like to have some fun with it, and it feels good." -- Lightning forward Anthony Cirelli on his teammates celebrating his hat trick
"We'll look at it on video, wash that one off and get ready for [the Chicago Blackhawks]. It's out of our control now. We had a stinker, and we've got to move on." -- Jets center Mark Scheifele

Need to know

After playing 13 games in 21 days, the Lightning have 10 days off and do not play until after the 2020 Honda NHL All-Star Game. ... Killorn's goal gave him 300 NHL points (125 goals, 175 assists) in 563 games. ... Kucherov has five goals in his past three games. This was his fourth multigoal game of the season (29th of his NHL career) and third in the past six games. ... Stamkos had two assists to give him 53 points (29 goals, 24 assists) in 38 games against Winnipeg.

What's next

Lightning: At the Dallas Stars on Monday, Jan. 27 (8 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SNE, SNO, SNW, NHL.TV)
Jets: At the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, SN, NBCSCH, NHL.TV)