Andrei Vasilevskiy capped a night of celebration with his second shutout this season as the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the visiting New Jersey Devils 4-0 on Saturday night.
The 2019 Vezina Trophy winner stopped 29 shots for his 36th career shutout after also starting the evening on a high note.
Before the teams’ second matchup this season, the Lightning showered Vasilevskiy with gifts and video messages from family and former teammates, including Buffalo Sabres goalie Ben Bishop and former Tampa Bay captain Steven Stamkos, to commemorate his 300th career win Thursday against the Winnipeg Jets.
Nick Paul, Darren Raddysh, Victor Hedman and Anthony Cirelli each scored as the Lightning won their second straight and improved to 6-1-1 at home.
Nikita Kucherov finished with two assists, increasing his point streak to seven games. The points brought the right winger’s career total to 899. Jake Guentzel also had two assists. First-line center Brayden Point missed his fourth consecutive game with a lower-body injury.
New Jersey was attempting a rare three-game sweep in the Sunshine State after defeating the Florida Panthers twice in Sunrise, Fla., during the week.
Appearing in his 499th NHL game, Jacob Markstrom made 23 saves as the Devils lost for just the second time in seven games (5-2-0).
Tampa Bay cashed in at 14:27 when Paul took a pass from Guentzel and floated a long wrister that got through traffic and by Markstrom for his fifth goal of the season.
In the second, Vasilevskiy protected the lead with the first of his two spectacular saves of the period. Sliding across the crease in a split, Vasilevskiy made a close glove grab on Nico Hischier’s potential tying goal at 8:02.
Markstrom answered with his own bit of brilliance, diving across the crease in a full sprawl and gloving Paul’s bid for a second goal from the right circle a little more than three minutes later.
Just 39 seconds into the third, Raddysh blistered a faceoff win by Cirelli for his first goal this season to increase the Lightning’s lead to 2-0. Hedman created more separation by scoring on a power play, his fourth goal this season, at 7:40 to increase the lead to 3-0.
Cirelli collected his fourth goal with 12 seconds left after defenseman Luke Hughes threw his stick at the forward as he skated in on an empty net.
–Field Level Media
