Vasilevskiy, Lightning defeat Canucks, end three-game losing streak

VANCOUVER -- Andrei Vasilevskiy made 35 saves for the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 2-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena on Sunday.

Victor Hedman and Ross Colton scored for the Lightning (38-15-6), who ended a three-game losing streak.
Tampa Bay lost 4-1 to the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday and could not travel until Sunday afternoon because of a mechanical issue with the team plane.
"Talking to the guys, we didn't want to have any of this travel and all the issues we had last night and the late night and say 'Well, we're going to mail this game in,'" Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. "No excuses from this group, and they came through."
J.T. Miller scored, and Thatcher Demko made 29 saves for the Canucks (29-24-7), who lost in regulation for the first time in five games (3-1-1). They played without center Elias Pettersson; he is day to day because of an upper-body injury.
"We tried, we played really hard in the last two periods," Vancouver coach Bruce Boudreau said. "Sometimes you're playing a world-class goalie, arguably the best goalie in the world. We had some really great chances, [but] we couldn't get it by him. We got one, but he was the one who was the difference maker for their team."

Hedman gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead at 3:26 of the first period after Demko got caught out of position during a rebound scramble, and Colton scored at 5:06 with a one timer from the slot after Corey Perry stole the puck from Travis Hamonic to make it 2-0.
Steven Stamkos appeared to make it 3-0 at 19:02 with a one-timer off the rush, but the Canucks successfully challenged the Lightning entered the zone offside.
"We just have to have better starts. It's killing us right now," Vancouver forward Conor Garland said. "If we just have a better start and play like we did in the second and the third, we're going to win a lot of hockey games."
Vasilevskiy made a save on Tanner Pearson's one-timer from the slot and against Matthew Highmore in alone before the end of the first period. He then robbed Miller and Brock Boeser on backdoor chances, and the rebounds, early in the second period before denying Miller on a breakaway at 8:24.
Vasilevskiy allowed 16 goals over his previous four starts.
"Obviously, I didn't play my best last few games, and I needed the game tonight to step up and help our guys out," Vasilevskiy said. "I'm happy that I was able to do that. The whole team played well. Just through the hard work, we were able to overcome this stretch."

Miller made it 2-1 at 5:54 of the third period after a pass from Garland out of the corner to the low slot. The goal extended Miller's point streak to 12 games (24 points; eight goals, 16 assists).
Garland appeared to tie it 2-2 at 7:58, but the referee blew his whistle before Garland knocked a loose puck past Vasilevskiy at the side of the net.
Tampa Bay is 7-0-1 in the second game of a back to back this season.
"I know how proud we are and we want to try and win every game, but sometimes you go through these stretches and I don't know when the last time was we lost three in a row (Dec. 30-Jan. 2), so for us to bounce back today on a back to back was huge," Hedman said. " … It says a lot about the character in that locker room. We're up for the challenge, whatever it is, and it was another example tonight."
NOTES:Tampa Bay forward Alex Killorn played his 700th NHL game. He had one shot on goal in 19:01 of ice time. … The Lightning complete their season-long six-game road trip at the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday. … Canucks forward Bo Horvat had his point streak end at five games (eight points; three goals, five assists), and defenseman Quinn Hughes had his end at four games (seven points; one goal, six assists).