Late strikes propel Lightning past Wild
TAMPA, Fla. -- Dan Girardi and Tyler Johnson scored late in the third period to lift the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 3-0 victory against the Minnesota Wild on Saturday.
Andrei Vasilevskiy finished with 22 saves for his fourth shutout of the season and eighth of his career.
The Lightning enter the three-day break for Christmas with nine wins in the past 10 games and seven consecutive victories on home ice.
Alex Stalock, starting in net on consecutive nights for Minnesota, stopped 28 shots for the Wild.
Girardi scored his second of the season, coming down the slot to take a threaded pass from Brayden Point at 17:18. Johnson scored 52 seconds later, while Nikita Kucherov scored his league-leading 24th goal into an empty net with 53 seconds remaining.
Tampa Bay had control of the play through the first half of the opening period. The Lightning were using their speed through the middle of the ice and getting into the Wild zone with ease. It led to a pair of Tampa Bay power plays through the first 11-plus minutes of the game and the Lightning built up a 10-1 advantage on the shot clock, but were unable to put one past Stalock.
With the ice tilted in Tampa Bay's favor, Alex Killorn took an offensive zone tripping penalty at 13:39, 10 seconds after the second power-play chance, and the momentum started to turn as the Wild generated shots and chances, getting four shots on the power-play opportunity. Minnesota outshot Tampa Bay 9-2 over the final 6:21 of the period, though the game remained scoreless.
Both goalies remained locked in during the second period as well. Vasilevskiy came up with the biggest save of the game, stopping Charlie Coyle in tight and then denying the rebound chance at 15:06.
In a game dominated by power-play time, the Lightning had a golden opportunity to break the scoreless tie midway through the third period when Mikko Koivu was called for slashing at 8:11.
Then during the penalty kill, Minnesota defenseman Ryan Suter flipped the stick out of the hands of Johnson for the second time within a few seconds and was called for interference on the play at 9:03, giving Tampa Bay 1:08 of a two-man advantage.
But with a five-forward alignment on the 5-on-3 chance, the Lightning were unable to get any strong looks on the net, with Daniel Winnik coming up with two key blocked shots to keep it scoreless.
Minnesota received its sixth-power play chance with 6:32 left as Mikhail Sergachev was called for slashing, but the Wild came up empty, thanks in part to a stop by Vasilevskiy on Koivu alone in front.
NOTES: Minnesota RW Nino Niederreiter was not in the lineup for the Wild after leaving Friday's game at Florida in the first period. Head coach Bruce Boudreau said a call-up might be needed when the team returns from the three-day break for Christmas. ... Minnesota G Devan Dubnyk missed his sixth consecutive game with a lower-body injury, but has resumed skating and could be ready to return next week. ... Tampa Bay scratched D Slater Koekkoek and D Andrej Sustr. ... Lightning C Cedric Paquette appeared in his 200th career game. ... Lightning C Tyler Johnson scored his 98th career goal to tie Chris Gratton for ninth on the franchise all-time list.