The Backcheck: First shutout of 2025-26 extends Lightning win streak to four

Nada. Zilch. Nill.

Shutout.

Tampa Bay Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped all 20 shots he faced on Monday night to lead the home team to their first shutout victory of the season by a 3-0 score over the Philadelphia Flyers.

Vasilevskiy was there when his team needed him most—six minutes into the third period, the goalie made back-to-back reaching saves to keep the visitors off the scoreboard. As Philadelphia pushed late down by a pair of goals, he continued to keep the puck out.

Monday’s win doesn’t happen without No. 88.

"Best goalie in the world. There's not much more to it,” Lightning forward Brandon Hagel said postgame. "People can say what they want about Vasy, but you know when he's in the back of the net you have a chance to win. And I mean that in the playoffs. I mean that in the Stanley Cup Finals, and I mean that in the regular season. He builds so much confidence in this group, and I'll continue to say it until I'm out of the league or until he's out of league that he's the best goalie in the world. Because me personally, you come in the room, you see his number's circled, it just gives your group that much confidence.”

The Lightning opened the scoring with less than five minutes remaining in the first period at Benchmark International Arena.

Defenseman Emil Lilleberg accepted a pass at the top of the offensive zone and wound up for a slap shot, which went off Hagel’s body in front of the net before hitting twine with 4:26 remaining.

The goal was Hagel’s 10th of the season and was started by Nikita Kucherov’s pass to Lilleberg from the right boards.

Hagel and Kucherov helped set up the 2-0 goal for Tampa Bay in the second period, too. Defenseman Declan Carlile won a race to the puck in the defensive zone and poked it away from a rushing Flyer, which created a rush opportunity for the Lightning.

Kucherov entered the offensive zone on a 3-on-2 chance and passed to Hagel in the left circle, who outwaited a sprawling Flyers defenseman and dished to Anthony Cirelli atop the crease for a redirected goal with four minutes left in the middle frame.

“Your best defense is your best offense,” Hagel said of the play. "The quicker and harder you can be in the D-zone and create loose pucks and battles, the O-zone is going to take care of itself…Carly…poked it there, was able to get it to me, and I was able to give it to Kuch. Just little things like that, using your stick, being hard is going to turn into good offense. And I think we're doing that, and we've got to continue to get better at it, obviously, but everyone buys into it and knows that if you take care of defense, two points is going to come.”

Hagel’s second goal of the night was into the empty net in the game’s final minute for the 3-0 final score.

The Lightning earned the win and kept the Flyers scoreless despite being outshot 16-11 over the second and third periods.

“We were up two goals and kind of really shut them down a little bit,” defenseman Darren Raddysh said. "And we pressed when we had to, we defended well when they were coming down. I really liked our third period."

Tampa Bay improves to 13-7-2 with the win, the team’s fourth in a row to sit atop the Atlantic Division standings. Hagel co-led the Lightning on offense with three points, joining Kucherov (three assists).

“We've defended. Defending is hard because you’re playing without the puck, it’s not as much fun. It takes a lot of work, takes energy. But when you're defending with everything in front of you, it's easier than when you're chasing pucks, when you're turning them over or you're not managing properly, you're not putting them in spaces you need to. And so, it makes things a lot more difficult. And we're just not really doing that right now, and we're playing a pretty complete 200-foot game, and you eliminate these odd-man rushes you give up.”

The Lightning next host the Calgary Flames on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Benjamin’s Three Stars:

1. Andrei Vasilevskiy, TBL (20-save shutout, win)
2. Brandon Hagel, TBL (2 goals, assist)
3. Nikita Kucherov, TBL (3 assists)