“Watch two guys like that go toe-to-toe — I know I coach one of the teams — but you kind of marvel at some of the saves that were made,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “On that one save, (Bobrovsky) didn’t quit on it. That’s probably more on us than him, but you’ve got to tip your hat to him.

“I thought the biggest saves were the two Vasy made after that save. Which, at the time, could have sunk us. He kept us in it. It was a pretty sparkling performance by both guys.”

There were actually three rapid-fire saves by Vasilevskiy during the sequence Cooper was talking about. He began by stopping a long-range shot with his blocker, then kept his left leg down to block the follow-up and immediately swallowed a third attempt with his glove.

This all happened in a span of two seconds.

A minute after that, Vasilevskiy disrupted Verhaeghe as he crossed through the crease with the puck, and then caught a wide-open snap shot by Tkachuk from 24 feet away.

With the Lightning on a four-minute power play early in the third period, Vasilevskiy rescued Nikita Kucherov when a shot attempt went awry and Aaron Ekblad broke loose with a one-on-one. Vasilevskiy held his ground in the crease and made a glove save from 14 feet.

If you had any doubt that Vasilevskiy’s less-than-stellar numbers this season suggested there was a problem with his game, this is the night that should put that silly notion to rest. Yes, his numbers (a 2.90 goals-against average and a .900 save percentage) were the worst of his career, but that had more to do with the skaters in front of him and a slow start after offseason back surgery.

But, as the first two games suggested, there is only so much Vasilevskiy can do if his teammates continue to allow Florida to dictate the flow.

The Lightning swore they would not have the same miserable start they had in Game 1.

And they didn’t.

...continued

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