Vasilevskiy, Lightning extend streaks in win against Flyers

TAMPA -- Andrei Vasilevskiy made 30 saves to extend his point streak to 21 games for the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 5-3 win against the Philadelphia Flyers at Amalie Arena on Saturday.

Vasilevskiy is 19-0-2 in his past 21 starts. The Lightning won their 10th straight game, tying their record, and set their record with their 11th consecutive home win.
"A win streak is better than a losing streak right?" Vasilevskiy said. "Every day we come here and we just keep working hard. We know what happened last year right? Now we're just trying to avoid getting too comfortable] and just play one game at a time."
***[WATCH: [All Flyers vs. Lightning highlights]*
Brayden Point scored to extend his point streak to 10 games, and Victor Hedman had two assists for the Lightning (39-15-5), who last season won 62 games but were swept in the Eastern Conference First Round.

Ivan Provorov and Claude Giroux each had a goal and an assist for the Flyers (32-20-7), who are 3-2-0 in their past five games. Carter Hart made 19 saves on 23 shots.
"We could've won that one," defenseman Matt Niskanen said. "We had enough chances to score and enough goals to win. [Vasilevskiy] was pretty good."
The Lightning goalie made the save against Sean Couturier on a breakaway at 1:51 of the third period and made a sliding save on Robert Hagg at 4:28.
"He's been feeling it, for sure, as has their whole team, they've been finding ways to win," Flyers forward James van Riemsdyk said. "Obviously we had a couple breakaways there, a couple 2-on-1s, we were getting some good looks and some good chances with some guys we want getting those changes. Unfortunately, he made some big saves, and that's just the way the game was."

Alex Killorn gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead at 3:17 of the first period when he stuffed in his own rebound. Cedric Paquette made it 2-0 at 14:55, and Carter Verhaeghe extended the lead to 3-0 at 2:35.
"To go on a run like [this] is pretty cool," Tampa Bay center Anthony Cirelli said. "Everyone's having fun around the room, but at the end of the day, it's still just a part of the season. We have to keep working hard, trying to be better, and play a full 60-minute game."

Provorov made it 3-1 with a power-play goal at 8:57 of second period.
Point put the Lightning ahead 4-1 at 12:34 of the third.
Van Riemsdyk scored a power-play goal at 15:31 to make it 4-2.
Giroux scored to make it 4-3 at 16:14 after the Flyers pulled Hart for an extra attacker. It was ruled no goal on the ice, but the call was overturned after video review showed the puck completely crossed the goal line.
Nikita Kucherov scored into an empty net with 22 seconds remaining to make it 5-3.
"For the last two periods, we played the way we wanted to, a little more aggressive," Giroux said. "That was an intense game. A lot of things were happening. We were down 4-1 with seven minutes left and made a pretty good push."

They said it

"As far as believing in this group and always working hard and trying to do the right things, there's no doubt we're trying to do that. We'll go home, we just finished a challenging stretch here of five or six games in five or six different cities. We're going to go home, rest up, and get ready for [the] Columbus [Blue Jackets]." -- Flyers coach Alain Vigneault
"(In the third period) we were just a little loose, a little loose in our coverage, definitely loose in giving up odd-man [rushes], and our goalie (Andrei Vasilevskiy) made some really good saves to preserve the lead for us. In saying that, we've been on a pretty good run here. And I've stood up here a lot and it's not too often I can criticize this team because they are giving everything they have." -- Lightning coach Jon Cooper

Need to know

The Lightning also won 10 games in a row from Feb. 9-27, 2019, and from Dec. 23, 2019-Jan. 11. ... Tampa Bay won 10 in a row at home from Dec. 11, 2014-Jan. 31, 2015. ... Point has three goals and 11 assists during his 10-game point streak. … Giroux tied Bobby Clarke for most power-play assists in Flyers history with 234. ... Giroux has nine points (three goals, six assists) during a five-game point streak. … Provorov leads the Flyers with seven power-play goals this season. ... Van Riemsdyk has eight points (four goals, four assists) during a five-game point streak. … Lightning forward Steven Stamkos had two assists after missing the previous three games with an upper-body injury. He has 17 points (nine goals, eight assists) in his past 11 games.

What's next

Flyers: Host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; NBCSP, FS-O, NHL.TV)
Lightning: At the Colorado Avalanche on Monday (9 p.m. ET; ESPN+, SN, TVAS, ALT, SUN, NHL.TV)