NHL Game Night: 12-12-17 Lightning at Blues
Vasilevskiy spooks Blues, then releases the kittens.
TB-3
STL-0
Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped all 32 shots he faced for the shutout victory. Pure Vasilarceny. Tampa Bay got loose at times in the final 40 minutes of the game giving up way too many odd man rushes, but you saw the Vasilevskiy phenomenon in effect. World class snipers like Tarasenko trying to cut it too fine pulling shots wide of the net left and right because Vasiy had crawled up into their heads and built a condo. The really great goaltenders do that. Vasiy is on his way.
First Period
19:15 TB Point (13), (Johnson, Killorn)
Second Period
NO SCORING
Third Period
13:37 TB Kucherov (21), (Sergachev)
19:38 TB Johnson (7), (Point, Hedman)(EN)
Vasilevskiy and Brayden Point were the game's first and second stars.
I'm not going to tell you that was the Lightning's most picturesque win. But, it's illustrative of how a really good team with skill and goaltending manufactures a road win even when they're not all the way on their A game.
The Lightning's win tonight completes the team's third 10-game segment of the campaign, which was another success. Now sitting at 46 points this year, the Lightning have banked a staggering 10 insurance points heading into segment four of the season, and they're just two points away from hitting the halfway mark of the minimum they need to comfortably make the postseason. It's all lovely and impressive, and they'll get until the next morning skate to enjoy it, because after that the mantra is clear: flush it and move on. Twelve in ten? Now do it again.
Slater Koekkoek had 1 blocked shot in 10:36. Not surprising that in a close game the staff curtailed his ice time.
Yanni Gourde had 1 hit and was 56% on 9 draws in 15:07. He's one of the guys who didn't have his most effective night tonight.
Jake Dotchin had 3 shots and 6 hits in 18:32 in a heavy game that favored his style of play. The ice time numbers are trending in a good direction.
Mikhail Sergachev had a helper and was +1 with 2 shots and 2 blocked shots in a pretty hefty 21:30. He had some turnover issues tonight, so it wasn't a clean game, but his possession numbers have been pretty strong the past few games. Tonight, although he only got 2 shots through, he had 10 total attempts to lead the team. That's some fancy stat-age for you all.
Box score and extended statistics from NHL.com.