Andrei Vasilevskiy made 20 saves for his first shutout this season, Brandon Hagel notched two goals and an assist and the Tampa Bay Lightning blanked the visiting Philadelphia Flyers 3-0 on Monday night.
The 31-year-old Russian goaltender crafted his 41st career shutout and sixth against the Flyers.
Injured in the second period of his club’s 5-3 win over the Washington Capitals on Saturday night, Nikita Kucherov returned to the lineup and assisted on all three tallies as the red-hot Lightning improved to 12-3-0 in their last 15.
Anthony Cirelli scored and had an assist for Tampa Bay, which played without center Brayden Point. He also was injured against the Capitals.
Philadelphia goalie Samuel Ersson stopped 15 of 17 shots as the club had its two-game winning streak snapped and was shut out for the first time.
Defenseman Travis Sanheim skated in his 600th NHL game, all with the Flyers.
After Philadelphia’s Nicolas Deslauriers took down the Lightning’s Curtis Joseph in a brief fight, the Flyers nearly scored on a miscue by Vasilevskiy handling the puck near the crease, but Matvei Michkov could not pot the goal.
However, Emil Lilleberg’s long shot from up top was clipped by Hagel and sent in for his 10th tally at 15:34 for the Lightning’s 1-0 advantage that stood after 20 minutes in which they outshot the visitors 7-4.
In the second, the two Eastern Conference clubs could not find much offense for most of the frame until the home side worked an odd-man rush break late to double its edge.
Kucherov led the rush and sent a cross-ice pass to Hagel, trailing the play late, who slipped a feed into the slot that Cirelli easily chipped in with four minutes to go.
For the second consecutive period, neither side committed an infraction that led to a power play as Philadelphia held a slim 7-5 edge in shots as the frame ended.
Hagel netted an empty-net goal in the final minute, his 11th overall, for the final margin.
–Field Level Media
