Lightning's Vasilevskiy shuts door to lift Tampa Bay past Flames
Tampa Bay's Stamkos scores, adds assist to continue path to 500 goals
Nikita Kucherov had two goals, Andrei Vasilevskiy made 39 saves, and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Calgary Flames 4-1 on Thursday night.
Steven Stamkos had a goal and an assist, and Philippe Myers also scored for the Lightning. Mikhail Sergachev picked up two assists and has five assists and seven points during a three-game point streak.
Kucherov had a power-play goal in the second period and an empty-netter.
"I'll take the chances we had over the one's they had," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "They're getting pucks to the net, but if your goalie sees them and from the outside, it's just limiting what happens after that. I thought we did a good job of that tonight."
Elias Lindholm scored for Calgary and Jacob Markstrom stopped 20 shots. The Flames had won two in a row after losing seven straight (0-5-2).
WATCH | Kucherov paces Lightning:
Stamkos' goal was his 490th, tying him with Norm Ullman for 49th on the all-time list. The Lightning captain picked up his 500th career assist Tuesday night against Dallas.
Stamkos has a goal in two consecutive games after going 10 games without one. He opened the season with seven goals during a five-game goal streak.
"Every year it ebbs, it flows," Stamkos said. "It wasn't going to go as hot as it was in the beginning. It wasn't going to go as cold as it was there for a bit. Things even out during the course of a long season."
Less than a minute after Calgary's Milan Lucic had a goal disallowed after a video review determined the Flames were offside, Stamkos made it 1-0 from the left circle at 8:03 of the first.
Kucherov put Tampa Bay up 2-0 from the right circle during a power play with 1:44 left in the second. Sergachev made a nifty play at the point to keep the puck in the offensive zone, sent a backhand pass to Stamkos, who set up Kucherov with a pass through the slot.
Vasilevskiy turned aside 16 shots during the second.
This was the first of a six-game Eastern Conference trip for the Flames.
"This is going to be a big trip for us, for sure." Calgary centre Mikael Backlund said. "When the trip's over, we're at a point of the season where you can tell where team's are at."
