TAMPA, Fla. — Alex Killorn beat Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin in the sixth round of the shootout, and Andrei Vasilevskiy made it stand up by stopping Adam Fox for the Lightning’s 2-1 shootout win over New York on Thursday night at Amalie Arena.
Vasilevskiy, starting games on back-to-back days for the first time since Games 3 and 4 of the second round of the playoffs in May against the Panthers, stopped 45 of the 46 shots he faced.
Brayden Point had put the Lightning in that spot. He scored his third goal in the last two games 5:32 into the third period, banking a pass from Steven Stamkos off the pads of Shesterkin to tie the score at 1.
The Lightning hoped that Wednesday night’s high-energy 4-1 win over the Canadiens would give them a jumpstart after the holiday break and they have won their first two games coming out with the Coyotes coming into town to close out the year Saturday.
The Lightning won both games that Vasilevskiy played on back-to-back nights in the playoffs and posted a shutout in the second. While he did not blank the Rangers on Thursday night, he was strong in the net.
It was an all-too familiar face who beat the Lightning goalie early.
Mika Zibanejad continued his assault on the Lightning and Vasilevskiy from last season. The Rangers’ top-line center fired New York’s first goal from the slot at 12:45 in the first period. Zibanejad now has nine goals in nine games against Vasilevskiy.
The Lightning lost defenseman Erik Cernak, who left the ice toward the end of the first period after a hit from Sammy Blais, which looked like a head-to-head collision. Cernak went down the tunnel toward the Lightning locker room and did not return with the team for the second period.
