Lightning Round: Andrei Vasilevskiy recorded his 10th consecutive regular-season win against Montreal

Another day, another historical record for the Big Cat. After helping the Tampa Bay Lightning to defeat the Montreal Canadiens, Andrei Vasilevskiy became the first goaltender in the modern era (since 1943-44) to win ten consecutive regular-season games against Montreal. The two previous goaltenders who achieved that milestone played during the early years of the league: Alec Connell recorded 12 consecutive wins from 1925 to 1927, while playing for the original Ottawa Senators and Turk Broda recorded his streak from 1939 to 1941 during his stint with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Vasilevskiy posted a strong performance last night against Montreal, but wasn’t the main hero in this game. Brandon Hagel led the Lightning with two goals, eventually becoming the first star of the game and third star of the day in the whole NHL. In his last five games, Brandon Hagel has 9 points (5 goals, 4 assists) [Raw Charge]

The Tampa Bay Lightning shook off a valiant effort by the Montreal Canadiens and used two power play goals in the second period to post a 5-1 win. Four different Lightning players recorded goals as Brandon Hagel (x2), Nick Paul, Anthony Cirelli, and Nikita Kucherov scored. Andrei Vasilevskiy picked up another victory as he stopped 22 of 23 shots.

For the second game in a row, Mikhail Sergachev was scratched. Zach Bogosian was also out of the line-up so Haydn Fleury and Cal Foote teamed up as the third defensive pairing.

With five consecutive wins, the Lightning have one of the longest active winning streaks in the NHL right now. They’re currently sitting just three points behind the Toronto Maple Leafs with two games in hand. The two teams are scheduled to play against each other on Tuesday in Toronto. The Lightning beat the Leafs in their first meeting of the season on December 3 at Amalie Arena in overtime.

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The Syracuse Crunch earned a tough victory against the Bridgeport Islanders on Saturday night, extending their winning streak to three games. Gabriel Dumont scored twice in this game, while Hugo Alnefelt stopped 36-of-39 shots in this game.

The Orlando Solar Bears also celebrated the victory, defeating the Florida Everblades 5-1 yesterday.

Hockey News

The summary of the previous day in the NHL.

The New Jersey Devils lost their fifth game in a row, but still remain on top of the Metropolitan Division with 44 points in 31 games.

The Boston Bruins became the first team this season to reach a 50-point mark after beating the Columbus Blue Jackets.

The Philadelphia Flyers’ forward Lukas Sedlak is expected to terminate his contract with the team and activated his contract with the Dynamo Pardubice from Czech Extraliga.

Some bad news for the Winnipeg Jets fans as Blake Wheeler and Nate Schmidt will miss at least next four weeks.

According to Elliotte Friedman, the Vancouver Canucks aren’t interested in rebuild right now, but willing to change their mix. Elias Pettersson is the only untouchable player right now.

The St. Louis Blues signed rookie Marc-Andre Gaudet to a three-year entry-level contract.

The London Knights from the OHL announced the sudden passing of a Russian forward Abakar Kazbekov.