By Michael Wax
After a week off, the Bolts snapped their four-game losing streak with a 4-1 win over the league-best Jets.
Here are three things we saw from the win:
Mr. 300
The greatest goaltender in franchise history has added another record to his catalog.
Andrei Vasilevskiy will become the 40th goaltender in NHL history to record 300 regular season wins. It's been a while since No. 299, and Vasilevskiy stopped 24 of 25 Winnipeg Jets shots to get his elusive milestone.
Vasilevskiy also became the fastest goaltender in NHL history to 300 career wins, at 490 games, passing Montréal Canadiens legend Jacque Plante, who did so in 521 games.
Vasilevskiy had a few big stops, including the rush on Kyle Connor and in tight on Cole Perfetti. The Lightning did enough offensively, and Vasilevskiy didn’t have to be perfect, but aside from a wonky deflection, he was.
Feel The Power
On November 14, the Lightning finally have a power-play goal at home.
The Lightning came into this game having not scored a power-play goal at home so far this season; one of the last teams in the NHL not to score a home power-play goal. Just seconds after Brandon Hagel made it 2-0 early in the second, the Bolts got their first opportunity of the night on a hooking call. As the park went between Nikita Kucherov and Victor Hedman on the outside, Anthony Cirelli parked himself right in front of the net and got a stick on Hedman’s initial shot towards the net to beat Eric Comrie and make it a 3-0 game.
Not only did this goal snap a scoreless streak for the Lightning, but it was also Anthony Cirelli’s 100th career goal. Not bad for someone who has been a pristine passer early in the year.
Bad Losses, Good Wins
Rewind one week, and the Lightning were coming off one of their worst losses in Jon Cooper’s 10 years as head coach. Falling 2-1 in a shootout to the league-worst Philadelphia Flyers, their losing streak had reached four games in a row, and the temperature was at an all-time high as they headed into a week long break.
Now come back to the present day, and the Lightning just beat not only the best team in the league, but one of the best teams in NHL history up to this point. The Jets came into this game 15-1-0, and riding a seven game winning streak. The Lightning made it look relatively easy in handing the Jets their second loss.
There wasn’t a ton of sustained zone time for Winnipeg, and when there was the Lightning in the passing lanes and in the shooting lanes. Huge props go to Luke Glendening and JJ Moser, two guys that put their bodies on line to make sure that a ton of shots didn’t get through.
The Bolts stay hot at home, now 5-1-1, and welcome the New Jersey Devil into town on Saturday.
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