Vasilevskiy Hands Flyers 1st Shutout Loss of Season

By Kevin Durso, Sports Talk Philly editor 

Just as the second period was approaching its midpoint, the Tampa Bay Lightning finally broke the ice with the first goal of the game. It was the only one they needed. 

Through 44 games, the Flyers had not been shut out all season, but Andrei Vasilevskiy handed the Flyers their first as the Lightning claimed their 10th straight win, 1-0, on Saturday night at Wells Fargo Center.

The Flyers had good energy from the start of the game and opened up a 5-2 lead in shots early. They also got the benefit of having an early power play, but were not able to get much to the net.

The rest of the period, the focus was on the penalty kill. The Flyers took two penalties, including a four-minute, double-minor for high-sticking to Travis Konecny. The Flyers were able to kill off all six minutes of power play time for the Lightning and the game remained scoreless through 20 minutes. Shots were 8-7 Lightning through one period.

The Flyers got a chance to get the first goal of the game with a power play in the second, but shortly after the power play had expired, they surrendered the first goal.

Patrick Maroon had been in the box with the penalty, and after exiting, keep pressure on in the offensive zone as Matt Niskanen went to play the puck with his glove and knock it out of the zone. Niskanen whiffed and the bouncing puck settled on the stick of Maroon, who beat Carter Hart through the five-hole to give Tampa Bay the 1-0 lead at 7:27 of the first.

That was the only scoring of the period despite much more pressure applied by the Lightning. Tampa Bay finished with 13 shots in the period to six for the Flyers. Through 40 minutes, shots were 21-13 Tampa Bay.

The Flyers generated more pressure early in the third. Opportunities included a shot by Kevin Hayes that rang off the post and a tip-in by Travis Sanheim that was stopped by Vasilevskiy. That was as close as the Flyers would get to scoring.

They did have a power play with 5:35 to play, but had virtually no scoring chances. With the net empty in the final minute of the game, the Flyers were never really able to gain entry into the zone and time ran out.

Vasilevskiy finished with 23 saves in his second straight shutout win. Hart made 27 saves on 28 shots in the loss.

The Flyers return to the ice on Monday as they face the Boston Bruins at 7 p.m.

Box Score

Scoring Summary

1st Period

• No Scoring

2nd Period

• TB Patrick Maroon (6) (Anthony Cirelli, Erik Cernak) 7:27

3rd Period

• No Scoring

Game Statistics