In Dallas, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 28 saves to lead the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 2-0 win over the Stars, on Tuesday night.
It was the goalie’s third straight shutout.
“Talk about somebody that’s in a groove, he is most certainly in one right now,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “Just to watch his growth, it’s been awesome to see. You’ve got to take advantage when he’s in a groove like this and we are.”
Ondrej Palat scored off the power play for the Bolts in the first period.
“It’s always nice when you score on the first PP,” Palat said. “We had a lot of chances on the power play, especially in the second and third period, so we could be better there.
“In the offseason I didn’t know I was going to play [in Kucherov’s] spot. But I’m working on [the one-timer] in practice and knowing just when to shoot the puck.”
Dallas has dropped all the way back to 6-7-4.
“Listen, if there’s any other goalie in the League other than [Vasilevskiy] in there tonight, we score some goals,” Stars head coach Rick Bowness said. “He was great. That’s why he’s the best goalie in the League.”
The Lightning improved to 15-4-1.
Yanni Gourde popped in an empty-net goal with five ticks left on the regulation clock.
“The more you play with somebody, the more comfortable you are and understand where they are going to be in certain situations,” Lightning forward Blake Coleman said of the penalty kill. “While the forwards are important, it’s obviously a unit. [The defensemen have] been great, goaltending has been great. You can’t have a great kill without all five guys doing their part.”
Dallas missed three chances on the power play in the game.
“We had some great looks tonight. A couple of times we missed the net and a couple of times he makes a good save,” the Stars’ Joe Pavelski said. “It’s one of those moments where it’s not going in right now. We’re giving up 1-2 goals … we’ve got to win these games.”
Anton Khudobin made 17 saves in the loss.
“We’re missing finishing,” Bowness said. “We’re creating enough chances. We’re creating shots and opportunities but we’re lacking a little finish right now … a little puck luck around the net.”
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