Vasilevskiy, Lightning shut out Blackhawks

CHICAGO -- Andrei Vasilevskiy made 40 saves for his League-leading seventh shutout of the season to help the Tampa Bay Lightning defeat the Chicago Blackhawks 2-0 at United Center on Monday.
"I think for the whole team, it's a big win," said Vasilevskiy, who had previously allowed four or more goals in five straight starts. "Definitely we'll have some more confidence now. But this game is in the past; tomorrow's a new game, new day. Just one game at a time."

Chris Kunitz and Yanni Gourde scored for Tampa Bay (32-12-3), which ended a three-game losing streak.
WATCH: [All Lightning vs. Blackhawks highlights]
"We needed a game like tonight," Lightning defenseman Braydon Coburn said. "We needed to shut the door defensively. You look at [Vasilevskiy], he played an unbelievable game. Chicago did a good job of attacking the net and getting lots of chances. ... We did a good job of keeping them to minimum opportunities."
Jeff Glass made 29 saves for Chicago (22-19-6), which has lost three in a row.

"Goaltending on both ends was excellent," Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville said. "I still think that we've got to get into his eyes more. I think our shots ... good goalies in today's game, they see the pucks. It's tough to score on them. I still think we can be better at preventing them to do what they need to do to see it clearly."
With the Blackhawks on a four-minute power play, Kunitz gave the Lightning a 1-0 lead with a shorthanded goal when he banked a shot off Glass' left skate from behind the net at 17:14 of the second period. It was Kunitz's first goal in 18 games.
"One of those things, kind of a broken play; [Brayden Point] drops it to Jake [Dotchin] and Jake's shot got deflected and kind of maybe got lost in the glass," Kunitz said. "I just tried to pull it around and when I put it back on net, it just slid of the goalie's pad and went in. You'll take them any time you can, especially in a tight game like this."
Gourde made it 2-0 at 18:26 of the third period with a slap shot. It was his 15th goal of the season.
The Lightning killed off all six penalties after going 6-for-10 on the penalty kill in their previous four games.

"That's the difference in the game," Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "You look at the guys they throw over the boards, so you're going to give them 11 minutes in power-play time. To keep them off the board, especially with a 45-second 5-on-3, that was the difference."

Goal of the game

Gourde's goal at 18:26 of the third period.

Save of the game

Vasilevskiy's save against Patrick Sharp at 6:08 of the first period.

Highlight of the game

Kunitz's shorthanded goal at 17:14 of the second period.

They said it

"They were determined. It was tough for us to get going in this game just [because] I felt like we were killing penalties the whole time. But in the end, we got that 1-0 lead and we had to go into the third period and defend, and we did. I thought in the end we deserved to get that one." -- Lightning coach Jon Cooper
"That hole's getting deeper. Some positive things, but not scoring in some key situations and giving up that [shorthanded goal] in a period that you probably played as good as you've played in a wrong time and dominate, and you're down 1-0 with a four-minute power play and you don't score on a 5-on-3." -- Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville

Need to know

Lightning forwards Matthew Peca and Michael Bournival each made their season debuts after being recalled from Syracuse of the American Hockey League on Sunday. ... Blackhawks center Artem Anisimov returned after missing 10 games because of an upper-body injury.

What's next

Lightning:At the Nashville Predators on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET; TVAS, FS-TN, SUN, NHL.TV)
Blackhawks:Host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; FS-SW; NBCSN, SN, TVA Sports, NHL.TV)