In Raleigh, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 34 saves and the Tampa Bay Lighting defeated the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-2, on Monday night.
“We blocked a ton of shots (15), and when we didn’t, [Vasilevsky] was there,” Tampa Bay head coach Jon Cooper said. “When you play good teams, you’re going to get leaned on. I like the fact that we didn’t break.”
Jesper Fast scored both goals for the Canes.
“We were a little off at the start, but we built a game after that,” Carolina head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “But they were the better team overall, and that’s why they got the two points.”
Carolina saw its six-game point streak end with the loss.
Steven Stamkos, Ondrej Palat and Victor Hedman picked up two points apiece in the win with a goal and assist each.
“We talked about that a lot, that we need to shoot more, we need to go hard to the net, take the goalie’s eyes away,” Palat said. “I thought that’s what we did. We created chances like that, and that’s how we scored.”
Alex Killorn put the game away with an empty-net marker.
“I don’t think we’ve lacked confidence, it’s just we don’t score against these guys for two straight games (also shut out 1-0 in first game Jan. 28),” Hedman said. “We had some great chances in the first, but we didn’t bury it. I think a lot of credit goes to all the guys who stuck with it.”
James Reimer made 28 saves in the loss.
“Of course you want to have a win when you score a goal, and getting the first one, it’s always good getting on the score sheet,” Fast said. “I’m trying to focus on playing the right way. I feel like I’m starting to get my game where I want it to be.”
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