Goalie Vasilevskiy shines as Lightning beat Devils to reach second round

Andrei Vasilevskiy made 26 saves as the Tampa Bay Lightning eliminated the New Jersey Devils with a 3-1 victory in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon.

The Lightning won the series four games to one and await the winner of Boston-Toronto. The Bruins lead the series 3-2 after losing to the Maple Leafs 4-3 on Saturday night.

Vasilevskiy did not see much action until the third period as the Lightning controlled possession throughout the second due to four straight power plays. He stepped up with saves on Taylor Hall, Kyle Palmieri and Pavel Zacha during New Jersey’s first power play midway through the third.

The stop on Palmieri occurred when Vasilevskiy sprawled through the crease and stretched his right foot to secure the puck before it crossed the goal line with 10:31 remaining.

Nearly two minutes later, Vasilevskiy made a point-blank stop on a partial breakaway chance by Jesper Bratt.

“He just came up huge in every big situation,” Lightning coach Jon Cooper said. “There were times in this series he’d go seven to nine minutes without seeing a shot, and then all of a sudden have to face a power play or face a bigtime chance.

“The timely saves were phenomenal for us. He just played with confidence.”

Mikhail Sergachev scored his first career goal in the first period, Nikita Kucherov netted the game-winner with about 8.5 minutes remaining and Ryan Callahan added an empty-net goal.

“We wanted to make sure we took care of it here,” Callahan said. “I loved the way we did it defensively. We were sound.”

Cory Schneider kept the Devils in the game with a 35-save performance. He made 11 stops during four straight Tampa Bay power plays in the second when the Devils were outshot 18-4.

Patrick Maroon scored for the Devils, who stayed in the game by keeping the Lightning scoreless in five power plays. Hall endured a frustrating game, highlighted by breaking his stick on a onetimer attempt with about 14 minutes left.

“It’s a tough pill to swallow,” Palmieri said. “Doesn’t matter if you lose in Game 5, 6 or 7. If you lose your last game of the season, it sucks.”