Clayton Keller was behind the Tampa Bay Lightning defense with nothing but open air between him and Andrei Vasilevskiy. The three-time 30-goal scorer had the puck on his stick and a chance to tie the game. All he had to do was slide the puck past the Lightning goaltender. For the briefest of seconds, there was daylight between the pads, but when the backhand shot was released, Vasilevskiy’s leg was there to deflect the puck away. The score remained 1-0 in the Lightning’s favor, and they would go on to win the game over the Utah Mammoth, 2-0.

For Vasilevskiy, it was just another one of his 28 saves on the way to his second shutout of the season. After the game, he admitted that his method of defending the breakaway was to not overthink it,

“Tried to just react. I didn’t think much. That’s why I love those kind of games, a lot of shots, no time to think, and I didn’t think about anything, but stopping the shot.”

Coming off of a loss to Columbus where the defensive systems broke down early and often, the Lightning were tested by a speedy Utah team early in the game. The Mammoth came out skating well, but Tampa Bay’s defense held, and when it didn’t, Vasilevskiy was there to eliminate the danger. It took the Bolts a little while to get going, and when they did, Karel Vejmelka was there to shut it down. He ended the night with 26 saves, keeping the Lightning offense off the board at 5v5.

The teams might have been deadlocked at even-strength, but the Lightning’s special teams carried the day. First up were the penalty killers who staved off back-to-back short-handed opportunities early in the second period. Eight minutes later, Tampa Bay’s power play had their chance to put the home team on the board and they didn’t waste it as Darren Raddysh slammed a one-timer into the back of the net.

Darren Raddysh [14] (Nikita Kucherov, Jake Guentzel) Power Play, 1-0 Lightning

Over the next 25 minutes or so, the two teams traded chances (including the Keller breakaway) but were thwarted by the dueling goaltenders. In front of Vasilevskiy, the Lightning skaters were doing their part to drive chances away from the dangerous areas and block as many chances as they could. Tampa Bay was credited with 20 blocks on the night.

The physical play picked up as the clock ticked down. With a few minutes to go a sequence of uncalled questionable hits was initiated when Michael Carcone landed a forearm shiver on Max Crozier. Brandon Hagel was then in a collision at center ice that, on some nights might have been called interference. As the puck went down into the Lightning zone, Zemgus Girgensons got away with a boarding on Sean Durzi.

Play was eventually whistled down when Lawson Crouse went over the line in a skirmish with Darren Raddysh and was called for roughing (and led to the ice-level mics picking up Raddysh’s expletive-filled reaction to Crouse’s actions). Anthony Cirelli ended any doubt as to the outcome when he beat Vejmelka from the slot.

Anthony Cirelli [15] (J.J. Moser, Nikita Kucherov) Power Play, 2-0 Lightning

The goal was initially credited to Brandon Hagel, but as the overhead angle showed, it crossed the line before he got a stick on it. With the change in scoring, Nikita Kucherov picked up his second assist of the night, bringing his point total to 80 on the season.

With the win, Vasilevskiy picked up his 354th win, breaking a tie with old friend Evgeni Nabokov to move into the 24th spot all-time in wins. Next up is Carey Price at 361.