Vasilevskiy, Lightning shut out Wild for ninth victory in 10 games

TAMPA -- Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves, and Dan Girardi scored with 2:42 remaining in the third period to help the Tampa Bay Lightning defeat the Minnesota Wild 3-0 at Amalie Arena on Saturday.
It was the second shutout in the past five starts for Vasilevskiy, who leads the NHL with 23 wins, matching his total from last season.

"Guys are playing really well in front," Vasilevskiy (23-5-1) said. "Just fearless and good execution. The shutout is for our team. We deserve it."
WATCH: [All Wild vs. Lightning highlights]
Girardi's second goal of the season, which gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead, came off a feed from Brayden Point.
"[Dan] deserves that," Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman said. "The way he's been playing for us, he sacrifices his body every game. He was sneaking in the play there and it was great patience by Point to find him. I was very happy for him to get that goal, and it was huge for us."
Tyler Johnson and Nikita Kucherov scored for the Lightning (26-7-2), who have won nine of their past 10 games and seven straight at home.

Johnson scored his ninth of the season 52 seconds after Girardi for a 2-0 lead, a wrist shot from the right circle that beat Wild goalie Alex Stalock high on the glove side.
Kucherov scored his 24th of the season on an empty-net goal with 53 seconds left for a 3-0 lead. He leads the NHL in goals and points (51).
The Lightning held the Wild to 0-for-6 on the power-play after giving up seven power-play goals in their previous three games.
"We calmed ourselves down a little bit," Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. "The past few games we had been running around, so we made a couple of adjustments, the staff with [associate coach] Rick Bowness and [assistant coach] Brad Lauer got together.
"It's a matter of, you have to block a shot, can't depend on the goalie all the time. But I thought we had good sticks, we were in lanes, and then our down-ice pressure, we didn't really let them get in clean, so they didn't have a ton of time in the zone, so that was good for us."

Stalock made 28 saves for the Wild (18-15-3), who have lost four of their past five games.
"I thought our guys played great," Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said. "The heart they played with and determination. It's unfortunate the last two minutes ended like it did. But I told them after the game, if they played like that, they are going to win a lot of hockey games."
The Wild held the Lightning to 0-for-6 on the power play, including a 5-on-3 for more than a minute midway through third period.
"We had momentum after that unbelievable 5-on-3 kill, and then they get a break and find the back of the net," Stalock said. "Anytime you give up one late, it just takes the wind out of the group."

Goal of the game

Girardi's goal with 2:42 remaining in the third period.

Save of the game

Vasilevskiy's save on Mikko Koivu at 13:35 of the third period.

Highlight of the game

Girardi saving a goal at 15:40 of the first period.

They said it

"It really doesn't matter what you do for the 60 minutes if you lose the game. You've got nothing, and now we go home for a couple of days."-- Wild captain Mikko Koivu
"We've talked about [how] keeping the puck out of our net is kind of a recipe for success to our team. When we do that, we know we have the offense that's going to come eventually. It took 57 minutes, but it's going to come." -- Lightning captain Steven Stamkos

Need to know

Vasilevskiy was 23-17-7 in 50 games (47 starts) last season. ... Johnson's goal was the 98th of his NHL career, tying him with Chris Gratton for ninth on the Lightning all-time list. ... Wild forward Nino Niederreiter (ankle) did not play, but Boudreau said the injury likely isn't serious. ... Wild defenseman Ryan Suter played 28:18 and was minus-2 in his 200th consecutive game played. ... The Lightning record for consecutive home wins is nine, set from Jan. 2-Feb. 12, 2016.

What's next

Wild: Host the Dallas Stars on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; FS-N+, FS-SW+, NHL.TV)
Lightning: Host the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday (7:30 p.m. ET; SUN, TSN2, RDS, NHL.TV)