The Tampa Bay Lightning were back to playing a well-rounded defensive game on Monday night at Amalie Arena, where they hosted the Philadelphia Flyers.
Unassisted on four-on-four play, Nikita Kucherov scored on a breakaway with a shot past Ivan Fedotov, giving him his 29th goal of the season.
In the second period, the Lightning were forced to kill off a four-minute double-minor, but dominated against a struggling Flyers power play. The Lightning’s penalty kill has been dominate since the start of March, recording a 92.3% success rate.
“We just want to build our game to as close to 60 minutes as we can here, and each game is going to be more intense and more significant here for us,” said defenseman Ryan McDonagh. “We still haven't accomplished our goal yet of clinching the playoffs. We’ve got to do that and keep building our game here."
Both teams went scoreless in the second period, so the Lightning held on to a narrow 1-0 lead.
With 1:30 left in regulation, Jake Guentzel scored on an empty net, giving the team a 2-0 win. Andrei Vasilevskiy recorded his fifth shutout of the season, marking the 39th of his career.
“Like I said, it’s just putting pucks behind them and going to work,” said McDonagh. “We feel like our forechecking game has become a huge strength. It was evident last game against Boston, and probably didn't get to it enough tonight, but certainly in the third there making them go 200 feet was the key.”