Vezina Trophy finalist Andrei Vasilevskiy leads Lightning past Hurricanes in Game 2 of NHL playoffs

Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind'Amour called Tampa Bay's Andrei Vasilevskiy the best goalie in the world after Game 1 of their second-round series.

NHL general managers confirmed that when they voted the Lightning goalie a finalist for the Vezina Trophy for the fourth year in a row.

Tuesday night, Vasilevskiy showed why when he helped hold the Carolina Hurricanes off the scoreboard for more than 58 minutes and finished with 31 saves in a 2-1 victory that put the Central Division winners in a 2-0 hole. 

Counting Games 1 and 2 and the Game 6 clincher against the Florida Panthers, Vasilevskiy has stopped 97 of the last 99 shots he has faced.

"He’s clearly dominant," Brind'Amour said. "You got to keep shooting pucks. … There’s a lot of pucks we fired at him that we were in front of him and they were in front of him and traffic everywhere and still he’s able to get them."

The Lightning got goals from Alex Killorn and Anthony Cirelli and Tampa Bay kept Carolina off the scoreboard until Andrei Svechnikov beat Vasilevskiy after a quick Jordan Staal pass from behind the net with 1:30 left.  

But Vasilevskiy made a big save on Staal in close with 8.4 seconds left, and the defending champions held on for the win.

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The Lightning head back home for the next two games, and the Hurricanes are in injury trouble. Already missing 20-goal scorer Nino Niederreiter, they lost No. 2 scorer Vincent Trocheck when he collided with a teammate.

"He doesn’t look good," Brind'Amour said. "I don’t know exactly the extent of it at this point. But he obviously couldn’t finish, which is never good. You know he would play if he could."

Vasilevskiy, who had 31 wins and a .925 save percentage this season, won the Vezina Trophy in 2018-19. He said he was honored to be nominated again, but considers it "a team effort."

Lightning coach Jon Cooper was more effusive, saying when Vasilevskiy is in a zone, there's no better goalie.

"It does make you sit an inch taller on the bench when you got him back there," Cooper said.

Vezina finalist vs. Vezina finalist

The other two Vezina finalists, first-timers Marc-Andre Fleury and Philipp Grubauer, are expected to square off in Game 2 of the Vegas Golden Knights-Colorado Avalanche series.

That last happened when Winnipeg's Connor Hellebuyck bested Nashville's Pekka Rinne in the 2018 playoffs. The 2011 (Tim Thomas, Roberto Luongo) and 2012 (Henrik Lundqvist, Jonathan Quick) Stanley Cup Finals also featured Vezina finalists. 

Vegas coach Peter DeBoer didn't say Fleury would start – he never announces his goalie – but Robin Lehner took a maintenance day Tuesday and gave up seven Avalanche goals Sunday in his lone playoff appearance.

"He had an incredible year," DeBoer said of Fleury. "We wouldn’t be here without the year he had. You have to take our hat off to him. He faced some adversity (last year). Instead of laying down, he showed up in camp and fought and battled."

Lehner took the No. 1 job from Fleury last year after arriving in a trade. This season, Fleury carried the team when Lehner was out with a concussion and finished with 26 wins, a 1.98 goals-against average and .928 save percentage.

"I’m not looking for individual awards, but this is definitely very flattering," Fleury said.

Grubauer (30 wins, 1.95, .922) helped the Avalanche win the Presidents' Trophy in his third season in Colorado. He's looking forward to going up against Fleury.

"When I came over and played in the Canadian Hockey League, I always watched Flower," he said. "It’s kind of fun to look down at the other end and see him there."

Draft lottery preview

The last-place Buffalo Sabres will find out if there is silver lining to their rough season during Wednesday's draft lottery (7 p.m. ET, NHL Network and NBCSN).

The Sabres have the best chance of winning at 16.6%, followed by the Anaheim Ducks (12.1%), the expansion Seattle Kraken and the New Jersey Devils (10.3% each) and the Columbus Blue Jackets (8.5%).

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University of Michigan defenseman Owen Power is the top-ranked North American skater and is expected to go No. 1 overall.

Under a new rule, the Sabres can draft no worse than third. That was changed after the last-place Detroit Red Wings picked fourth last year.

Wednesday's games

Montreal at Winnipeg, 7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN. Game 1 of series

Vegas at Colorado, 10 p.m. ET, NBCSN. Avalanche lead 1-0