Bolts snap losing streak in shutout

by Gary Shelton on January 31, 2025

in general

Vasilevskiy had his 37th shutout./TIM WIRT

Friday, 4 a.m.

For Andrei Vasilevskiy, the cure for illness is this:

Stop 28 pucks and call me in the morning.

Vasilevskiy, who missed the Lightning’s previous game due to health woes, came back Thursday night to shut out the L.A. Kings, 3-0. It was just the Bolts’ second win in six games.



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Hagel scored two goals./TIM WIRT

It was the 37th shutout of Vasilevskiy’s career — his third of the season. He has 21 wins this year and 314 in his career.

The Bolts, who had scored just one goal in their previous two games, scored three times, two of them by Brandon Hagel. But for most of the game, it was a 1-0 lead. Hagel scored again with 4:21 left to play to make it 2-0. Anthony Cirelli then scored his fourth short-handed goal of the season into an empty net with 1:17 to play.

The Kings had apparently tied the game on a goal by Quinton Byfield midway through the second period, but the Kings were ruled to be offsides.

“I feel like I’m giving the same press conference,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “I like the way we’re playing. It’s just tough. We’re giving ourselves a ton of chances and it hasn’t been going in for us. Clearly, the big turning point was when the challenge went our way. Who knows what happens if the game is tied.”

The Bolts are home Saturday night at 7 p.m. against the New York Islanders.

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