Vasilevskiy becomes fastest to 300 wins, as high-flying Jets grounded by Lightning in Tampa

Posted on November 14, 2024 by Peggy

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 24 saves in his 300th NHL win, and the Tampa Bay Lightning stopped Winnipeg’s seven-game win streak with a 4-1 victory over the Jets on Thursday night.

Vasilevskiy is the 40th goaltender in league history to win 300 games. He reached the milestone in 490 games, the fewest in NHL history, 31 faster than Jacques Plante.

Winnipeg lost for just the second time in 17 games this season. It dropped to 7-1 on the road.

Jake Guentzel scored twice for the Lightning, who had lost their previous five games against the Jets, including 7-4 in Winnipeg on Nov. 3.

Guentzel put Tampa Bay in front 7:24 into the first period, and goals by Brandon Hagel and Anthony Cirelli 57 seconds apart early in the second made it 3-0.

Winnipeg captain Adam Lowry scored on a deflection at 6:54 of the second, but Guentzel got an empty-netter with 21 seconds left.

A player in blue shoots on a goalie in white. — Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Nikita Kucherov shoots on Winnipeg Jets goaltender Eric Comrie during the second period of Thursday’s game in Tampa, Fla. (Chris O’Meara/The Associated Press)

Jets backup goalie Eric Comrie made 25 saves but lost for the first time in his four starts this season.

Takeaways

Jets: Winnipeg’s power play entered the game leading the NHL at 42.2 per cent, but it went scoreless in five tries with the extra man.

Lightning: Tampa Bay, coming off a seven-day layoff, won for the first time this month after going 0-3-1 in its first four November games.

Key moment

Cirelli’s power-play goal 4:07 into the second was also the first by the Lightning in 17 extra-man opportunities at Amalie Arena this season. Tampa Bay scored on 31.2 per cent of its power-play chances (38 of 122) at home in 2023-24.