Burns: 3 Things we learned from another shutout win

For two periods, Tampa Bay and Montreal were locked in a tight, evenly-played contest with neither team able to penetrate the other's goal.
The Lightning's depth, however, took over in the third period, and the Bolts pulled away from the Canadiens for a 3-0 victory to sweep their three-game homestand and push their win streak to five games and point streak to nine contests.

Once again, the hallmark of this year's team, an ability to continue to find way to win games, was on full display. And a franchise record fell by the wayside in the process.
The Lightning collected their 44th win and 92nd point of the season. They now own a commanding 17-point lead atop the Atlantic Division and a 16-point advantage in the Eastern Conference.
Here's how they got it done against the Canadiens.

1. VASY SECOND TO NONE
Two nights ago against Dallas, Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped all 32 shots he faced to pull into a tie with Ben Bishop for the franchise record for most career shutouts.
It took Vasilevskiy just one more game to secure the record all for himself.
Vasilevskiy made 20 saves Saturday against Montreal to notch his 18th career shutout, passing Bishop's mark of 17 shutouts through five seasons with Tampa Bay.
Vasilevskiy has posted back-to-back shutouts for the first time this season and is on a 125:49 shutout streak, his last goal allowed coming at 14:11 of the third period in a 6-3 win over Calgary on Tuesday. He has six shutouts this season, five of those coming in his last 14 starts.
Asked what it meant to pass Bishop and claim the franchise shutout record following the Montreal victory, Vasilevskiy was nonchalant.
"Yeah, it's cool," he said shrugging his shoulders, before adding, "Bish is an unbelievable goalie, and I'm pretty proud to be No. 1."
What's particularly scary for the rest of the NHL? Vasilevskiy seems to be improving as the season progresses, making an already strong Lightning team that much more difficult to beat. Vasilevskiy has allowed two or fewer goals in 10 of his last 17 starts. His save percentage is now at .928, third best in the NHL, and his goals-against average, 2.32, ranks fourth in the League.
"There's not a lot that can be said about Vasy that all of us don't already know," Lightning captain Steven Stamkos said. "I think he's gotten better as the season's gone on. I thought coming back from that injury, he wanted to get dialed in right away. You just see his work ethic in practice. You see his preparation for games, he's just so competitive. He wants to make every single save. It's obviously fun to be part of because it makes our job easier to go out and just have to get one."
Against Montreal, Vasilevskiy didn't necessarily have to be at his sharpest because his teammates limited the Canadiens to just 20 shots and only a couple good scoring chances. Montreal's best opportunity came late in the second period when Vasilevskiy was forced to make a pair of saves on Jonathan Drouin and then a third on Brendan Gallagher in the closing seconds of the frame. If one of those goes in, Saturday's outcome might have looked a little different.
"I tried to get on top as quick as possible and I just try to be compact," Vasilevskiy said. "It worked and a couple big saves, especially the timing, last few seconds of the second and then we score the important goals."

2. CHALLENGE CHANGES MOMENTUM
Lightning head coach Jon Cooper was coy about who alerted the bench to the possibility Montreal's game-opening goal was offside.
"It was a team effort all the way around," he smiled.
That coach - likely video coach Nigel Kirwan or video coordinator Brian Garlock - should get an assist, however.
Or maybe a bonus.
Montreal broke through at 12:49 of the second period, Brendan Gallagher breaking free from a couple Bolts against the wall to get a two-on-one down low and dishing off to Brett Kulak on the back post for Kulak to shoot into the open net. But after looking at the replay on their bench iPads, the Lightning challenged the goal for offside.
Video showed Montreal's Jesperi Kotkaniemi skated into the zone ahead of the puck, and the Situation Room in Toronto agreed, reversing the call on the ice.
The game remained 0-0 through the second period before the Lightning netted the opening goal at 2:16 of the third on Nikita Kucherov's power-play goal, his fifth goal over the last four games.
"I think that the goal that gets called back on offside, that can change the swing of momentum," Montreal defenseman Jeff Petry said. "I think if that's a goal that's counted then we have momentum there and I think that could have helped carry us the remainder of the period. They got momentum off of that, and then they were able to capitalize on their power play and that fueled them."
The disallowed goal came at a critical moment of the game when whichever team was able to get on the scoreboard first was going to be in the driver's seat to claim victory.
The fact the Lightning were able to hold off the Canadiens a little longer until they could find a way past Habs goalie Carey Price was the turning point in the game.

3. GOURDE'S GAME-CHANGING GOAL
Kucherov provided the all-important opening goal in Saturday's contest.
But it was Yanni Gourde's goal 1:25 after Kucherov scored that might have been the most important tally.
The Canadiens were already demoralized having gone down 1-0 early in the third, especially after battling the League-leading Lightning toe-to-toe for 40 minutes and having nothing to show for it after their goal was disallowed.
Staring at a 2-0 deficit in the blink of an eye proved to be too much for the Canadiens to overcome.
"You could tell our bench got just a little bit taller and theirs got a little bit shorter," Cooper said. "We kind of took advantage of that."
Up 2-0 less than four minutes into the third period, the Lightning proceeded to take complete control of the remainder of the game. The Lightning outshot the Canadiens 17-4 for the period and didn't give the Habs a single good look at the net the rest of the night.
Tyler Johnson's goal with 3:14 to go provided an insurance marker the Lightning wouldn't end up needing.
"You never know when it's going to come," Stamkos said, talking about the opening goal. "They're a really good team. They check well. They skate exceptionally well, so there's not a lot of time and space, and then they've got a good goalie when there are breakdowns. We stuck with it. We got a power play opportunity there and pounced on it, and it was probably one of our better periods of the year to be honest in the third. I thought we had the puck the whole time, created some chances and just kind of broke them down a little bit. You could see their frustration at the end of the game. I thought that was one of our more solid periods of the year so far."
Breaking through and then breaking them down, that's how the Lightning prevailed Saturday night over Montreal.