Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy was brilliant in a 45-save performance, Brayden Point and Nikita Kucherov had a goal and an assist apiece and the Lightning beat the host Red Wings 3-0 on Saturday night.
In recording the 30th shutout of his career and first against Detroit, Vasilevskiy extended his stellar mark against the Wings to 14-2-0 and 1-1-0 this season.
The 45 saves matched the most ever by a Lightning backstop in blanking an opponent.
Alex Killorn put the game away at 17:47 of the third with his 15th tally into an empty net to lift the club to 8-3-0 in the first game of a back-to-back set.
Defenseman Erik Cernak served the first of his two-game suspension for elbowing Buffalo’s Kyle Okposo in Tampa Bay’s 6-5 overtime loss on Thursday.
In his 100th career NHL game, Detroit goalie Ville Husso made 15 saves. The club lost for the second time in the past nine games (7-2-0).
Right winger Jonatan Berggren returned to the lineup after a one-game absence. Left winger Lucas Raymond (lower body) missed his eighth straight game.
In beating the Wings for the first time in three tries so far, Tampa Bay started the scoring when Point — coming off a four-point game against the Sabres — streaked in on a break-off pass from Kucherov and sent his club-best 35th marker inside the far post at 9:04.
But that goal wasn’t the only bad news for Detroit. Second-line left winger Michael Rasmussen was hit on the inside of the right knee on a slap shot by Lightning defenseman Zach Bogosian and did not return to the game.
In the second, Vasilevskiy starred early. On his club’s second power play, the big backstop stopped two fine chances by Jake Walman on one short-handed rush at 7:01. Nearly six minutes later, he robbed Dylan Larkin’s backhander near the open net with a kick-save.
After Vasilevskiy shut down Detroit’s second power play, Kucherov backhanded the puck with seven seconds remaining. The shot clipped Walman and slipped through Husso’s pads for his 22nd tally of the season.
In the lopsided period, the Wings owned a wide margin in shots by outshooting the Lightning 20-3 over the 20 minutes.
–Field Level Media
