Tampa Bay goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy used his second straight shutout to record his 200th career win in the Lightning’s first-ever match with Seattle, beating the visiting Kraken 3-0 on Friday night.
Vasilevskiy stopped 34 shots Tuesday night in a 4-0 home win over the Philadelphia Flyers and was solid again in the Kraken’s first appearance bayside.
The Russian netminder had a light night as he faced just 17 shots to improve his career mark to 200-86-22 overall with 28 shutouts.
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare — a defensive-oriented forward who excels in faceoffs and on the penalty kill — notched his first marker for the Lightning.
Ross Colton and Steven Stamkos netted for the Lightning, who won their third straight and are 6-1-0 in their past seven games.
Playing in his 100th career NHL game, Jan Rutta produced an assist on Colton’s tally as the Lightning moved to 8-1-2 in November.
Philipp Grubauer made 23 saves for the Kraken, who lost for the first time in three outings and are 1-7-1 on the road.
The Kraken played without team captain Mark Giordano (COVID protocol).
Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said forward Calle Jarnkrok was still being evaluated after Wednesday’s home win against Carolina and did not make the trip to Florida.
With the expansion club on just its second trip to the East, the Lightning proved to be an unwelcoming host right away.
Scoreless in 18 games after joining the Stanley Cup champions in the offseason, Bellemare took a pass from Corey Perry and sent home a sharp-angle shot from the left circle at 2:52.
The primary assist on the marker went to Perry — Bellemare’s linemate who scored his first goal as a member of the Lightning in Tuesday’s victory.
In a penalty-free period played mostly in front of Seattle’s goal, Tampa Bay generated 13 shots to the Kraken’s seven, but Grubauer stood strong for most of the frame.
The home side scored even quicker to open the second.
Colton gathered a rebound that struck Jeremy Lauzon and quickly fired home his second goal on the period’s first shot just 31 seconds in.
In the third, Seattle had a chance with its second power play at 6:24 when Bellemare went off for hooking, but Alex Wennberg’s tripping infraction negated the man advantage 53 seconds later.
Stamkos scored his seventh goal in the past 12 games, at 11:32, to complete the scoring.
–Field Level Media
