TAMPA, Fla. — It’s always expected around here, but now it’s official. With a 5-0 victory over the Islanders Saturday night at Amalie Arena, the Lightning clinched a spot in the Stanley Cup playoffs for a sixth straight season.
Tampa Bay clinched its ninth trip to the postseason in its last 10 seasons and 15th overall.
In what was expected to be a battle of two of the NHL’s best goaltenders, the Lightning’s Andrei Vasilevskiy clearly came out on top. Vasilevskiy, who allowed just three goals over his past three starts, stopped all 38 shots he faced to post his fourth shutout of the season and second in three games.
Meanwhile, the Islanders’ Ilya Sorokin allowed four goals on 21 shots in 31 minutes, 45 seconds before being pulled, likely to allow him to start the second of back-to-back games Sunday at Carolina.
Mikhail Sergachev opened the scoring with 2:07 to play in the first period. After a wrist shot got blocked, he didn’t risk it a second time. The Lightning defenseman slapped a laser from just inside the blue line that deflected off Islander defenseman Alexander Romanov and into the net. He became the second defenseman in team history to score 50 points in a season, joining Victor Hedman, who has done it twice.
Sergachev seemed to hurt his right knee in a collision in the third period. He went to the locker room and did not return.
Tanner Jeannot, who had been stymied on several scoring chances over the past week, finally found the net. The fourth-line wing snapped a Pierre-Edouard Bellemare pass through traffic and past Sorokin just 3:42 into the second period. That ended an 18-game drought with the Lightning and 25 games dating back to before he was acquired from Nashville.
Nikita Kucherov scored his first goal in six games on a breakaway from the blue line at 9:57 of the second. It was the right wing’s first point in two games.
Steven Stamkos scored his 33rd of the season at 11:45, when he deflected a Raddysh shot off his skate past Sorokin. That was Stamkos’ 1,052nd career point, ironically tying him with Islanders great Denis Potvin for 75th in NHL history. It is his seventh year with at least 80 points.
That was the goal that had Islanders coach Lane Lambert pulling Sorokin for backup Semyon Varlamov. Darren Raddysh scored his first NHL point on an assist to Sergachev and got his second just over 8 minutes later on Stamkos’ goal.
Brayden Point knocked in his 48th goal of the season and 19th on the power play at 13:26 of the third.
