Vancouver, British Columbia: The Tampa Bay Lightning weren’t in much of a celebratory mood after their latest win. Not after they built a three-goal lead and then had to hold of the Vancouver Canucks.
Yanni Gourde scored late in the second period to give the Tampa Bay a 3-0 lead in a 4-2 victory over Vancouver on Saturday night for the Lightning’s fifth win in six games.
“We didn’t play the right way,” Gourde said. “We can’t be doing that any more. You can’t let teams back in the game when you’re leading. We have to be much better than what we showed tonight.”
Chris Kunitz, Victor Hedman and Cory Conacher also scored for Eastern Conference-leading Tampa Bay, and Andrei Vasilevskiy stopped 31 shots. Nikita Kucherov had two assists.
Kunitz said his team needs to close out games if it hopes to make a deep run in the postseason.
“We have to make sure we’re learning how to win the right way,” he said. “We’re trying to focus on being a team that can win in the playoffs.”
Thomas Vanek and Brock Boeser scored for the Canucks, who were vying to win their third straight at home for the first time this season. Jacob Markstrom finished with 24 saves.
Vancouver pulled to 3-2 late in the third but the comeback ended when Conacher converted a penalty shot after taking a high stick to the face from Chris Tanev while on a breakaway.
“It’s tough for me, I have to come up with that save,” Markstrom said. “We’ve got to play full 60-minute games. We created chances, but they have one of the best goalies in the world over there and he outplayed me tonight. It’s frustrating.”
Vasilevskiy leads the league in shutouts (seven) and has faced 30 or more shot in his last six starts. He faced 17 shots in the third period alone against the Canucks.
