TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Andrei Vasilevskiy made 17 saves in his 200th victory and the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Seattle Kraken 3-0 Friday night for their sixth win in seven games.
Steven Stamkos, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Ross Colton scored for Tampa Bay, which improved to 8-1-3 in November.
Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay’s first-round pick (No. 19) in the 2012 draft, is 200-86-22 since making his debut on Dec. 16, 2014. He was rarely tested in his 28th shutout and second in two games after blanking the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday.
Philipp Grubauer made 23 saves for Seattle, which is 1-7-1 on the road in its first NHL season and 0-6-1 in its past seven games away from Climate Pledge Arena.
Bellemare, who was a teammate of Grubauer last season with the Colorado Avalanche, put Tampa Bay ahead at 2:52 of the first period. He took a wrist shot from the left faceoff dot that went past Grubauer’s glove for his first goal of the season.
Colton made it 2-0 by picking up the carom of a blocked shot and beating Grubauer 31 seconds into the second period for his second of the season.
Stamkos gave Tampa Bay a 3-0 lead at 11:32 of the third period when he one-timed a pass from Ondrej Palat past Grubauer from the left circle. It was his team-leading 11th goal.
Seattle’s Yanni Gourde, who centered the Lightning’s third line in their Stanley Cup championship runs in 2020 and 2021 before being selected by Seattle in the expansion draft, received a warm welcome from the sellout crowd at Amalie Arena and a video tribute during a stoppage in play midway through the first period.
UP NEXT
Kraken: Play the second of a four-game road trip at Florida on Saturday.
Lightning: Begin a two-game trip at Minnesota on Sunday.
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