NEW YORK (AP) Andrei Vasilevskiy made 34 saves and J.T. Brown and Ryan Callahan scored 42 seconds apart in the first period as the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the New York Islanders 4-0 on Monday night.
Nikita Kucherov and Vladislav Namestnikov added power-play goals as the Lightning won for the fourth time in seven games (4-2-1) following a three-game skid. Steven Stamkos had two assists to help Tampa Bay complete a sweep of the three-game season series with the Islanders – all within the last 14 days – by a combined 14-2 margin.
In the only National Hockey League game scheduled for Monday, Jaroslav Halak had 27 saves for New York, which was shut out for the first time this season and fell to 1-3-3 in its last seven.
Travis Hamonic returned to the Islanders just nine days after suffering a hand injury that was expected to keep him out for four to six weeks. However, New York was without fellow defenseman Dennis Seidenberg after he was placed on injured reserve with a broken jaw after getting hit in the face by a puck in Saturday night’s overtime loss at Florida. Scott Mayfield was an emergency recall from Bridgeport of the AHL, and the Islanders used seven defensemen and 11 forwards.
Mayfield fought with Brown about 5 1/2 minutes into the second after Brown hit Islanders captain John Tavares. Mayfield received 17 minutes of penalties, getting whistled for instigating and a misconduct in addition to the fighting major.
Kucherov extended Tampa Bay’s lead to 3-0 with 5:36 left in the second by completing a give-and-go with Stamkos, snapping the puck past Halak for his sixth of the season. It was Kucherov’s fourth goal against the Islanders, including one in each of the team’s three meetings.
The Lightning made it 4-0 about 2 1/2 minutes later when Stamkos brought the puck up ice and sent a pass to the right to Namestnikov, who tipped it in for his third.
New York pressed in the third and had a 20-4 advantage on shots, including four during a two-man advantage for 59 seconds, but Vasilevskiy stopped everything.
Brown got the Lightning on the scoreboard with 1:02 left in the opening period. Tampa Bay made it 2-0 with 20 seconds remaining when Andrej Sustr fired a shot from the right point that Callahan appeared to deflect with the shaft of his stick over Halak’s glove.
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Follow Vin Cherwoo at www.twitter.com/VinCherwooAP
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