Don’t look now, but the Lightning are the hottest team in the Eastern Conference, and their seventh straight win on Thursday night against Calgary followed a familiar script.
It certainly wasn’t the Lightning’s best night of a February that’s seen them take control of their playoff positioning, but their 3-0 shutout win over the Flames was another example of how defense wins games.
Of course, it helps having Andrei Vasilevskiy in net. The Lightning goaltender continued to make big saves when they needed him, none bigger than his stop to rob Jonathan Huberdeau of what would have been a tying goal early in the second period with Tampa Bay clinging to a 1-0 lead.
In taking all three games of their homestand coming out of the 4 Nations Faceoff break, the Lightning (34-20-4, 72 points, third place in the Atlantic) have outscored opponents 11-2. Over their current nine-game point streak dating to Jan. 30, they’ve held opponents to an average of 1.67 goals a game.
“I think we were a game below .500 in January, and I really like the way we played,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “We were defending, we were playing well. We just couldn’t put the puck into (the net). But I thought if we just kept with that, it had to break at some point. And in February, it has. Now the puck’s going in for us, and we’re still defending. And so, hence, we’ve strung a few wins here together.”
The Lightning’s seven-game win streak is their longest since claiming 11 straight during their 2019-20 Stanley Cup season.
Vasilevskiy with big save in big moment
The Lightning were slow out of the gate, and they were fortunate to take a lead into the first intermission following an opening 20 minutes in which the Flames were leaning on them. Nikita Kucherov’s opening power-play goal with 45 seconds remaining in the first came when he flung the puck toward the front off the crease, it hit off Calgary defenseman Mackenzie Weegar’s shin pad and into the back of the net.
On the other end, Vasilevskiy let nothing through, recording his fourth shutout of the season with a 27-save night. His stop on Huberdeau 72 seconds into the second period with Calgary on the power play, a play in which Vasilevskiy whipped out his right pad to close off the net to Huberdeau’s quick snap shot, was a huge momentum boost.
“You could tell it gave us a little bit of boost,” defenseman Erik Cernak said. “The building went crazy when he made that save. Everybody’s talking, ‘How good is Vasy?’ But for us, he’s the best goalie in the world, and he’s bailing us (out) in the right time always. And we’re happy we have him in our net. I think this season, he’s been unreal and kind of helping us every time he can.”
Through the month of February, Vasilevskiy has a 7-0-1 record with a .940 save percentage, numbers that have place him among the top five in all three major goaltending categories on the season, Over the past three games, he’s stopped 86 of 88 shots with a .977 save percentage.
“When Calgary was leaning on us a little bit there, especially in the second, we needed him and he delivered for us,” Cooper said. “Any time you can hold that lead and he got us to the third period, and then things kind of went our way after that, but he was the guy that kept us in it.”
Third period is winning time
Another element to the Lightning’s recent surge has been their ability to close out tight games late. They went into the third period still up 1-0, but didn’t sit back and were opportunistic. The Lightning were able to pad the lead with two goals in a third period in which they had just seven shots. Cernak scored at the 3:51 mark, and a Brandon Hagel empty-netter with 2:50 left in the game sealed it.
“Protecting the lead is one thing, but to play to our strengths and not sit back is what has made us successful,” Lightning captain Victor Hedman said. “So we’ve found that fine line of pushing the play, and want to sit back and protect the middle. And, you know, guys have done a really good job of buying into that.”
On Cernak’s goal, Anthony Cirelli chipped the puck forward and Hagel brought it to the top of the left circle and found Cernak trailing along the middle. Cernak saw Calgary goaltender Dustin Wolf cheating toward the short side, and beat him far side above his blocker.
“Once we’ve been getting the lead… we’re not doing the high risk things to put it in jeopardy,” Cooper said. “If another team grinds us down and scores, well, good on them, but giving away the freebies has been something that really hurt us in the first half of the year. And in this last couple months, we’ve done a better job of limiting that, especially of late. And then when we have broken down, the goalie’s been there. So kind of everything’s gone together.”
