In Tampa, the Lightning shut out the visiting New York Islanders, 5-0, on Saturday night.
The win clinched a playoff berth for Tampa.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 38 saves in the shutout win.
“Obviously, [making the playoffs] gives us peace of mind, and it gives us so much confidence moving on,” Vasilevskiy said. “We’ve been playing well enough to clinch the past few games, but we have to continue to play the same way and play that way in the playoffs.”
Tampa moved to 45-26-6.
“We’re starting to find a little identity with our team, and we’ve played some really good teams,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “Don’t get me wrong, this score is not indicative of the team we just played. We’re playing playoff teams. We’ve got through Boston (2-1 loss on March 25) and Carolina (4-0 win on Mach 28) and now the Islanders, and yeah we didn’t win them all, but we’ve been pretty darn competitive in them.”
Mikhail Sergachev scored in the opening stanza to give the Lightning a 1-0 lead.
The Islanders fell to 39-29-9.
“Overall, we had some breakdowns, a couple of mistakes, a couple of bad bounces, but it is what it is,” Islanders forward Kyle Palmieri said. “I mean 5-0, 10-0, 1-0 … we’re going to reset and try to win a hockey game tomorrow (at the Carolina Hurricanes).”
The second period was all Tampa as they posted three goals for a 4-0 advantage headed to the third.
“Overall, they executed on their chances,” Islanders coach Lane Lambert said. “As we went along their goaltender played well, and they just kind of built their lead and we couldn’t grasp on to it.”
Tanner Jeannot scored early in the middle frame for a 2-0 lead.
“I’ve been feeling good, just trying to keep it simple and play my game,” Jeannot said. “The team has been playing really well. I’ve been getting chances in previous games, and one finally went in for me.”
Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos scored to make it 4-0.
Brayden Point added a marker in the third pored for the 5-0 final.
“We started the game fine,” Islanders captain Anders Lee said. “First 20 was fine. … Second period was garbage.
“Unfortunately, it was bad timing to have a game like this, but we’ve got an opportunity tomorrow night. So let’s get back tonight, rest up tomorrow afternoon and roll tomorrow evening.”
Ilya Sorokin got the start for the Isles, and made 17 saves, yielding four goals before getting the hook in the second period.
Semyon Varlamov made 10 saves in a mop up role.
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