Vasilevskiy becomes fastest goalie to 300 wins, Lightning defeat surging Jets

TAMPA -- Andrei Vasilevskiy became the fastest goalie to reach 300 NHL wins, and the Tampa Bay Lightning handed the Winnipeg Jets their second loss of the season, 4-1 at Amalie Arena on Thursday.

Vasilevskiy, who is the 40th goalie to hit the milestone, did it in 490 games, breaking the record set by Jacques Plante (521 games).

"I'm fortunate to win 300 for the same hockey club. That doesn't happen that often nowadays," Vasilevskiy said. "Obviously it's hard to win in this league, but for the last 10 years I've played for such a great team. They work so hard on the ice and they help me out a lot during the game."

For the 30-year-old, the accomplishment adds to a resume that already includes a Vezina Trophy as the best goalie in the NHL (2019), two Stanley Cup championships (2020, 2021) and the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the Stanley Cup Playoffs (2021).

"How do you become the best?” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said. “So you are put in the big moments, in the big times, and deliver time and time again. Anytime you say best, greatest, fastest ... something is coming with it. To do what he's done and get 300 wins in the amount of time that accomplished that, along the way winning the Vezina Trophy, winning two Stanley Cups, participating in the four (Cup) Finals. I'm not so sure what else you can say about the man. And then you put him in a game where he can get to 300 against the best team, that's 15-1 and again he rises to the occasion. He's been a pleasure to coach. He's generational and he's still in his prime."

Jake Guentzel scored twice for the Lightning (8-6-1), who were 0-3-1 in their previous four games and hadn’t played in a week. Vasilevskiy made 23 saves.

Adam Lowry scored for the Jets (15-2-0), who could have been the fastest team in NHL history to get 16 wins in a season (17 games). Eric Comrie made 25 saves.

In its previous game, Winnipeg became the fastest team to 15 wins by defeating the New York Rangers 6-3 at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday.

"End of the day, they were on a mission and they were not going to let us get into our game, and that's a good lesson for us,” Winnipeg coach Scott Arniel said. "We know how we have to continue to play, we know what helps us have success, and just get back to it."

Guentzel gave Tampa Bay a 1-0 lead at 7:24 of the first period when he scored from the top of the slot off a drop pass from Nick Paul.

Brandon Hagel extended the lead to 2-0 at 3:10 of the second period when he took a feed from Darren Raddysh at the left hash marks and beat Comrie to the far post.

"They’re a good hockey team over there, but we have a good team over here," Hagel said. "We have to start getting points, getting home wins. Six days off, we went out and worked on some things. I thought we came out and did exactly what we were supposed to do. We didn’t beat ourselves up. We waited, capitalized when we needed to and defended."

Anthony Cirelli made it 3-0 at 4:07 with a power-play goal, redirecting a shot from Victor Hedman. It was Cirelli's 100th NHL goal.

Lowry cut it to 3-1 at 6:54 when a shot from Colin Miller deflected off Hedman and Lowry before getting past Vasilevskiy.

"I think there were parts of our game that we liked and there were certainly times when we were happy with how we were playing with the pressure and chances we were creating," said Lowry, the Jets captain. "Sometimes you just have to be patient when a team's going to sit back. ... Just a little bit of stubbornness on our part."

Guentzel scored his second of the game into an empty net at 19:39 of the third period for the 4-1 final.

The Jets lost for the first time on the road this season (7-1-0). They came into the game with the NHL’s top-ranked power play (42.2 percent) but went 0-for-5 with one shot on goal.

“We were just giving up too many Grade A’s, too many easy goals," Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. "Tonight we wanted to make it hard for them, make them go 200 feet. We managed the game well. We did a good job limiting the odd-mans. That’s a good recipe for us. We should only need three goals to win games."

NOTES: Vasilevskiy is 300-148-31. ... Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman got his 583rd NHL assist, passing Steven Stamkos for second in franchise history. He is five behind Martin St. Louis (588). ... Tampa Bay forward Nikita Kucherov (assist) extended his point streak to six games (three goals, seven assists). ... The Jets were trying to become the fifth team in NHL history to start a season 8-0-0 on the road.