Darren Raddysh and Anthony Cirelli scored for the Lightning (33-14-4), who were coming off an 8-5 loss at the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday that ended their 15-game point streak (14-0-1). Nikita Kucherov had two assists to extend his point streak to six games (three goals, 10 assists).
“As a team, we’ve been playing great hockey lately. We played a great team tonight on a run, same as us,” Vasilevskiy said. “It was a very close game and our big players stepped up. A good team win.”
Karel Vejmelka made 27 saves for the Mammoth (27-21-4), who had won five straight and also had their nine-game point streak end (8-0-1).
Utah will play the second of a back-to-back at the Florida Panthers on Tuesday.
“I think we played a really good game, especially in 5-on-5,” Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny said. “It’s a team out there that’s really stingy. They don’t give up anything. If you look at the chances we created and the expected goals … we’re really happy about our 5-on-5 play. We did a really good job [defensively], but too many untimely penalties. Not just that we got in the box, but the timing of when we got in the box, that cost us the game.”
The Lightning were 2-for-4 on the power play. The Mammoth were 0-for-3, including an opportunity with 6:44 remaining in the third period.
Raddysh opened the scoring on the power play at 17:38 of the second period. He finished a cross-ice pass from Kucherov with a one-timer at the top of the left face-off circle that went over Vejmelka’s glove. It was his eighth power-play goal, which leads all defensemen.
“When guys are moving, the PK is going to move and it opens up holes,” Raddysh said about the power play. “We’re trying to find lanes, trying to find the open play, and getting ‘Kuch’ moving and making the plays that he can make.”