National Hockey League
Tampa Bay 5, Dallas 0
When: 7:00 PM ET, Saturday, February 27, 2021
Where: Amalie Arena, Tampa, Florida
Referees: Pierre Lambert, Justin St. Pierre
Linesmen: Travis Gawryletz, Dan Kelly
Attendance: 537

Andrei Vasilevskiy produced his second consecutive shutout by stopping 20 shots as the Tampa Bay Lightning walloped the visiting Dallas Stars 5-0 in the first meeting between last season's Stanley Cup finalists.

Vasilevskiy, who blanked Carolina on Wednesday, recorded the 23rd shutout of his career, saving all 45 shots in the two whitewashings.

Steven Stamkos and Anthony Cirelli each produced a goal and an assist, and Ondrej Palat, Pat Maroon and Brayden Point scored. Tyler Johnson and Mikhail Sergachev recorded two helpers each for the Lightning, who won their fourth straight.

By going 2-for-2 on the power play and also tallying short-handed, Tampa Bay completely dominated special teams play to improve to 9-1-0 at home and finish February with a 10-3-0 record.

After two stellar performances this week against Florida -- a 49-save outing Monday and his 10th career shutout two nights later -- Anton Khudobin allowed five goals on 17 shots and was replaced by Jake Oettinger early in the third after Stamkos' goal.

Dallas finished 0-for-6 on the power play on its way to a 1-5-3 mark in its last nine.

Palat opened the scoring after the puck caromed around after a faceoff to the left of Khudobin. The left winger corralled it and popped in his eighth marker at 13:18 for a 1-0 lead while on the team's lone power play of the period.

Cirelli made it 2-0 at 4:06 of the second when he started on a breakout with Stamkos while short-handed, took a pass at the offensive blue line and deked a backhander past Khudobin for his first goal since Feb. 8 in Nashville -- his fifth this season.

Point wheeled through the slot past defenseman Andrej Sekera and buried his seventh goal at 8:17. Maroon's power-play marker from Johnson gave the home side a commanding 4-0 lead after two periods.

Stamkos notched his 10th goal just 67 seconds into the third, and Dallas coach Rick Bowness replaced Khudobin with Oettinger, who stopped all five shots.

The clubs will play again Tuesday in Dallas in a rescheduled contest that was originally slated to be played on Feb. 18 but postponed due to freezing temperatures in Texas.

In all, they had four games against each other postponed because of weather or COVID-19.

--Field Level Media

Top Game Performances
 
Dallas   Tampa Bay
N/A Points Anthony Cirelli 2
N/A Goals Anthony Cirelli 1
N/A Assists Tyler Johnson 2
N/A Power Play Goals Pat Maroon 1
N/A Short Handed Goals Anthony Cirelli 1
Jake Oettinger 1.000 Save Percentage Andrei Vasilevskiy 1.000
Anton Khudobin 11 Saves Andrei Vasilevskiy 20
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Shots Goals Power Play Penalty Kill Penalty Mins Face Offs Won
Dallas 20 0 0-6 0-2 11 23
Tampa Bay 21 5 2-2 6-6 19 19
Upcoming Games
  • Tampa Bay will play their next game on the road against Dallas. The Lightning have a W/L % of .769 after a win and .600 after a loss.
  • Dallas will play their next game at home against Tampa Bay. The Stars have a W/L % of .500 after a win and .222 after a loss.