Adrian Fedkiw
The Tampa Bay Lightning showed once again that they can still be a dangerous hockey team without Steven Stamkos.
Andrei Vasilevskiy made 32 saves for his fourth career shutout and the Lightning beat the Philadelphia Flyers 3-0 on Saturday afternoon at Wells Fargo Center.
Ondrej Palat recorded a goal and an assist, while Tyler Johnson and Jonathan Drouin added goals for Tampa Bay, which has won the first four of its five-game road trip.
Stamkos, who underwent surgery Thursday for a torn meniscus and will miss the next four months, had nine goals and 20 points in 17 games on the season before the injury. The Lightning have won their first two games since his absence. Tampa Bay, of course, knows how to win without him. Stamkos missed a significant amount of time from early April until Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals last season due to blood clots.
Just when it appeared that Steve Mason may have righted the ship with an impressive 30-save performance Thursday against the Winnipeg Jets and solid showings in his last three contests overall, he took a step backward Saturday. He allowed three goals on 18 shots.
Shayne Gostisbehere was back in the lineup after being a controversial healthy scratch Thursday.
Despite outshooting Tampa Bay 12-6 in the opening period, The Lightning scored the lone goal at 14:25 as Johnson snapped it into the open net off Alex Killorn’s left circle feed.
Lightning strike first at 14:25 of the 1st as Tyler Johnson snaps it into the open net off Killorn's left circle feed pic.twitter.com/RBkhEQcQBQ
— Philly Influencer (@PHL_Influencer) November 19, 2016
Palat increased the margin to 2-0 at 7:40 in the second when he whistled his high slot wrister past Mason into the upper right corner.
Palat makes it 2-0 after whistling a wrister past Mason into the upper right corner from the high slot @AdrianFedkiw pic.twitter.com/29jvhqZSKc
— Philly Influencer (@PHL_Influencer) November 19, 2016
Palat’s great stretch pass off the boards led to Drouin’s breakaway goal at 4:26 in the third and made it 3-0.
Drouin's breakaway goal gives TB a 3-0 lead pic.twitter.com/6axPBvi5ri
— Philly Influencer (@PHL_Influencer) November 19, 2016
In other news, Flyers forward Chris VandeVelde suffered an upper-body injury in the first period on this hit by Braydon Coburn and did not return.
Chris VandeVelde suffered an upper-body injury in the first period on this hit by Coburn and did not return pic.twitter.com/9wrQWfrww1
— Philly Influencer (@PHL_Influencer) November 19, 2016